Dear Parents and Families of Mrs. Flannery’s Second Grade Room 35 Achievers,
I’d like to welcome you and your children to our second-grade classroom community! I know that this year will be a special one for all of us.
Thank you for ordering the necessary school supplies. Due to limited storage space in our desks we have placedsome extra supplies in a baggie that is being sent home. Please keep these in a special location. The children may replace supplies as needed during the year.
Your child is also bringing home many of the pencils ordered and will be asked to come to school each day with two sharpened pencils. It is my hope that they will also return home each day with the pencils to sharpen and pack for the next day of school. (You might want to store a few in your child’s backpack for the early weeks of school while your child adjusts to this new responsibility.) A package of eraser tops on hand at home can be helpful since the pencil erasers often don’t last long. Some children also like pencil grips. I have no objection to these if your child finds them helpful. It is also convenient if you would like to purchase for classroom use a small pencil sharpener that has a shavings lid. If the erasers, grippers or sharpeners become a distraction for your child, he/she will be asked to discontinue their use.Please be careful when sending in “toy like” supplies since they can become distracting.
In addition to the supplies already purchased, your child hasabook bag for nightly reading.Please encourage careful handling of this bag since Ihope it will last the school year. There is a yellow note to read and sign (tear off bottom) inside the book bag in the purple reading folder that explains nightly reading expectations for the year. There is required reading of at least 20 minutes for each school night beginning the first day.
We will work together to discover the “just right books” in our classroom collection for your child to read at home. This might take some time as your child and I spend some time exploring books together. I appreciate feedback if the books chosen are too hard or too easy. A post it on the book can convey the message and help our next day search. Books may take a few days to read and rereading is encouraged. The book bag, folder, books and recording sheet must come back and forth to school each day. The children should be discouraged from overstuffing the bag with more than two free choice books. A group book will be provided as the year progresses.
A special note is included to help me stay in touch. Please fill this out and return it to school so that I have a best daytime number and email for each parent. This is for school use only. The PTA will contact families regarding a class list to share with students and families.
We are ordering Scholastic News Magazine and Science Spin this year and the subscription is $7.50 per child. Please send this into school in a labeled envelope (child’s name Scholastic News Magazine) at your earliest convenience. Please send the exact amount in a check made out to Scholastic News.
Thank you for sharing your children with me. I look forward to working together to help each student achieve to their own highest potential. A wonderful year is ahead as we enjoy the magic and joy of learning together.
The attachment is an overview of some procedures that you might find helpful. Please keep this as a reference for use this school year.
Arrival, lunchtime and dismissal:
Students should be in the school buildingby 8:25 am. Please make every effort to bring your child to school on time.Webegin work as soon as we unpack.Our classroom is room 35 and we are known as “The Room 35 Achievers”.
Our lunchtime is from11:20am-12:05pm. If your child is going home for lunch, a note is needed and they will be dismissed from the front desk of the school where they must be signed out and back in.
Dismissal is @3:00pm from the Marion Street side door of the school. Please keep me informed with a note if your child will be leaving the school with another child or an adult other than a parent. I truly appreciate reminders of special dismissal plans since your child’s safety is important. Your child will be dismissed from the door when we have both seen the dismissal grownup. It seems to work best if you wait near the sidewalk and your child and I look for you there. It can be confusing if parents or siblings crowd near the doorway, especially since several classes dismiss from this door. If you are late and I am not with your child at our dismissal door, please enter the front lobby and go to the front desk or main office.
Every absence requires a phone call to the school nurse, Mrs. Lecce. She has an answering machine @ 887-0296. When your child returns to school, they must bring an absence note stating the dates and reason for absence.This means you must call and send in a note. The note is a state law. We will try to send home work with a classmate, sibling or friend in a “We miss you” folder. Please return the work and folder (even if not completed yet) when your child returns to school. We can sometimes use class time to finish the work for a short absence.
I ask that every child bring a labeled, freshly filled sip top (sport) water bottle to school each day. I can only accept sip top containers because they are kept out at our seats for use during work time and this avoids spills. If your child is often thirsty, please send two and they can use one for the morning and one for the afternoon. We generally do not make stops at the school water fountains, so please help your child remember their water bottle each day.
We will be having a daily snack. The school encourages it to be a healthy (tree nut free)snack.I will alert you in a future note if there are any other allergy restrictions, since we eat snack together in the classroom.Please try to make every effort to find healthy foods that can be eaten neatly and quickly (one item) since we often have a working snack. Fruits or veggies for snack are encouraged. Please pack snack and lunch in separate labeled containers/bags. This eliminates eating snack at lunch since we have an afternoon snack! Reusable bags or containers are encouraged.
Behavior Management and Communication:
I will keep you informed of your child’s school behavior on classdojo.com. This a very timely and seamless way for you as parents to see daily how your child is interacting in our classroom community. The children and I will build the reward system on dojo together so that the children have input into our classroom rules and expectations. Dojo has an app you can download for free. Please request parent access using the prompts on the note in this folder.
Extra Help is before school and is by invitation. I feel that an invitation sets the positive tone that this is an opportunity for some extra learning time and not a punishment. If you have a particular area of concern where you feel your child needs extra help, please let me know and your child will be included. Tuesday at 7:55 am will be designated for math activities. Monday at 7:55 am will be a reading extra help. Extra help will begin later this month. This schedule could be changed, but you will be notified if that should happen.
Birthdays are important to second graders and we love to sing to the student using our classroom piano. We will also play Birthday Bingo as a special treat. Parents do not need to send in any items for birthday celebrations. Birthday party invitations should be distributed outside of the classroom.
A weekly homework sheetand skills packet will be sent home the first day of each school week. The skills homework packet is always due the last day of the school week to allow for completion at the convenience of family after school schedules. The weekly HW sheet will outline the homework expectations and note any special reminders. This homework packet should be kept in your child’s Bring Back side of their homework folder until the work is checked for completion and accuracy at home (signed please), shown to the teacher at the end of the week and returned.
Please note this part of the HW: Your child will be receiving a Eurekamath HW work bookfor each Module again this year. Beginning this year there is a separate HW book and sometimes I will assign a math HW page to correspond with our classwork. This could occur Monday-Thursday beginning the second week of school and it will need to be completed and returned the next day.This math work is best completed directly after a lesson is completed in school, so I will assign it as needed. Please help your child keep track of this workbook since I won’t easily have replacements.
Please initial all completed homework to let me know that you are satisfied with the accuracy and quality of the work completed.If your child has struggled with any aspect of the homework, please keep me informed with a note directly on the page that was difficult. It is important to encourage the children to draw my attention to your notation. I strongly believe in working as a team to help your child achieve as much as possible. Please communicate any HW concerns and we will work together to create the best HW solution for each child.Any religious observances or absences that conflict with HW completion just require a note of explanation and extra time will be provided. This rule applies to all holidays and obligations throughout the school year.
Please check your child’s homework folder dailyfor notes and notices. They will be filed according to what needs to be brought back to school (Bring Back side) and what can be kept at home (Keep Home side). The Bring Back side is the perfect place to put any notes that your child needs to deliver to me the next day. They should hand all notes in to the teacher since I do not check folders daily.
Reading “medals” of Gold, Silver, Bronze and Honorable Mention will be given out each school week for the students that read the most minutes in the week. Each child will be expected to read at least 20 minutes each school night. Weekends and holidays are not required but are included in our totals and are a great opportunity for some leisure reading. Please total the minutes read at home for each week on Thursday night so that in school on Friday we can quickly record the total and award the medals.This reward will begin the second week of school and the first total will be for both weeks.
We count the minutes read and not the number of bookscompleted so that every student has an equal chance to earn a “medal”. The gold “medalist” will receive coins to pay for the PTA fruit cart or ice cream at lunch time. When reading groups begin a group book will come home in the purple readingfolder. All reading group reading should take place before free choice reading. Reading group books must be brought back the next day, since we will be sharing these books among classmates and other classrooms.I will usually place a weekly note about reading in the reading notebook. This notebook will also contain fluency poems and sheets for practice at home. Please open this notebook as part of the home reading routine. Rereading poems, fluencies and books builds reading skills.
Please note the six-day cycle for our class. Your child must wear sneakers to participate in PE. In addition to these classes, we will be going to computer for two periods during the six-day cycle and we also have two extra desktops and six tablets in our classroom. You might want to cutout this schedule and post it at home.
Our 2019-2020 Room 35 Achiever Schedule
Day 1 Science Day 4 Music
Day 2 Science, PE* Day 5 Library**
*Wear sneakers for PE please! **Library book return
A daily school checklistis in your child’s HW folder and is readyto post at home.
We also have a class website that is linked to the Marion Street home page. You can email me, Marianna.Flannery@lynbrookschools.orgPlease send in notes or use my email or theclassdojo website. Both dojo and email will have quiet hours between 4:00pm and 7:30 am. Any important messages or pickup change that occurs during the school day should be called into the office (516) 887- 0295 to assure we are informed.