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WELCOME to SECOND GRADE
Ms. BRO JUST – ROOM 110
Dear Families,
It’s exciting to start the 2009 – 2010 school year. You might like to know a little about me. It’s been a happy 25 years of teaching at SAP.I attended Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D. and went on for a Master’s of Education at St. Mary’s in Winona, M.N, I have two adopted children from Paraguay, South America. My husband Carl helps out lots in our school. We have my youngest Analisa, who is a junior in high school, a greyhound dog and 2 cats. One of the cats was brought back from Australia when I was an American Exchange teacher in 2001.
We presently have 22 students in our class. If more students come with English as a second language they will join our class. Ms. Tocher will be working with the ELP students every day in our room for about 30 minutes.
Our Class List
Maisie Issac
Maasia Mitch
Vlad Chloe
Chiamaka Kian
Ian Raven
Veda Luwam
Henry Ashley
Ali Sarah
Frank Hashim
Lloyd Hannah
Jonas Abdirisakh
Approximate Daily Schedule
9:00 - 9:20 Morning Work/Daily Bite
9:25 – 10:25 Everyday Math
10:30 – 11:15 class meeting/ Writer's Workshop
11:15 - 11:45 Lunch
11:50 - 12:40 Specialists (Phy. Ed,Science,Music)
12:40 - 1:00 Recess
1:00 - 1:20 DEAR reading
1:20 – 2:20 Reader's Workshop
2:20 – 2:30 Snack
2:30 - 3:30 Skills/Spelling/
WOW word presentation-multi culture Social Studies
3:40 Dismissal
Mondays: Spelling pre-test,Computer, reading anthology sent home
Tuesday: School Library, Test on story read Monday night
Fridays: Art 1:30, spelling test
I will be posting a weekly newsletter each Monday on our website - http://stanthony.spps.org/2nd_Grade.html. If you need a paper copy, please tell me as that is where timely information you need to know will be.
Reader’s and Writer’s Workshops require an amount of autonomy on the student’s part that many 2nd graders may not be used to yet, so one of our first goals will be to learn routines, how to work independently and utilize other children’s strengths as resources. I would love to set up Book Groups as soon as possible – if you are available any day to conduct a reading group once per week, let me know.
In 2nd grade Everyday Math, our team groups the students in order to try to provide an optimum learning experience for all. We try to have all beginning assessment done and groups formed by the second week of school. More info will follow.
Class Meeting is an important component of the Responsive Classroom curriculum that seeks to integrate empathy, listening, caring, community building, oral presentation skills and having fun together with our academic curriculum. We begin with greeting each other every day in a circle, move on to playing a brief game, then sharing, and lastly reading the news and announcements. Sharing tends to be very popular in 2nd grade, so we have a few guidelines: first, students must sign up “first come, first served” on the news chart; second, only three people can share per day unless there is an event of critical importance we need to know about; third, each individual can only share one time per week; fourth, sharing time is limited to two minutes per person..
Book Reports are due every month. I will send home a form.” Flat Stanley “was the book report for September. If your child was not able to read it yet there is still time before the end of this month.
We will be trying to take part in an observation/science experiment this fall. The summer weather may impact whether we receive eggs or not, but we’ll try! If we succeed, each class will get some Monarch Butterfly eggs in order to follow the development from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. We might be looking for someone to provide milkweed to the classroom on a daily basis. Later thematic topics this year will be focused around topics such as Insects, Polar habitats or Rainforest. Social studies also include learning about maps, keys, historical American figures, and the responsibilities that go along with living on our Earth. Our winter Second Grade Author Study is on Vera B. Williams – a prolific, talented author!
HOMEWORK
Our policy in the St. Paul Public Schools indicate 10 minutes times the grade level of the student. Therefore, 20 minutes per night are the minimum for 2nd grade.
Reading: I plan on sending the reading anthology home on Monday, along with your child’s spelling pre-test results. Spelling words need to be studied and tests are on Fridays. Each child is responsible for the first 10 words on the list, then up to eight more difficult words for students to challenge themselves with are provided. The more difficult words are pulled from vocabulary in our thematic or individualized learning. Other reading from Reader’s Workshop may be coming home periodically.
Math: HomeLinks will be sent home from the students’ math class daily and is due the next day.
Writing: Most writing is done in school, but of course we LOVE students to write any time, any where, so writing assignments will vary and will be communicated in the weekly newsletter.
Current Events: Your child will need to seek out a news item each month. I will send a form home each month for your second grader to write the 5Ws that lead to greater comprehension (who, what, where, when, why/how) as well as the title of the news article. Please encourage your child to become interested in a variety of current events. The news can come from the newspaper, magazine, radio, Internet, family discussions or other medium. We’ll post the current events in the room and use them in oral talks.
WOW WORD – Every week your child is to write in their own words sentences as they present the meaning of the WOW word and any type of pictures, drawings can accompany it. The schedule for each day of the week is on my website .
Please let me know if you need to change your child’s day of the week. Thank you.
If homework gets done early, we have a 2nd grade Saints Baseball Reading program as extra incentive to read, read, read! See the back page for more details!!
We will be having various field trips and celebrations throughout the year, and will be asking for volunteers to help with chaperoning, decorating and food. As you know, federal mandates require food that comes to school needs to be pre-packaged, and the first five ingredients must NOT include sugar. We also have students with severe nut allergies and are a Nut Free School. If your child would like to bring a birthday treat on a Friday/Monday near her/his birthday, please sign up with me and PLEASE follow the regulations about food. I have 26 students on my list to date.
Walking trips to the public library will require the kids to wear good shoes/boots on those days. We’ll return the books at the next visit, unless you do so on family time. We always love any adult company walking to and fro. Your family is responsible for books checked out on your child’s card.
If you need to reach me, I try to check email every day, or simply call or write a note.
Thank you and am looking forward to working with all of you!
Ms. Bro Just
bro.just@spps.org
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Welcome_to_2nd_Grade_Newsletter0910.pdf
Welcome to 2nd Grade
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