| 2B CLASS HANDBOOK
Second grade will be an exciting year for your child. Our second grade
curriculum keeps us very busy. Your child will participate in many units
within religion, reading, writing, handwriting (we begin cursive in
January), math, social studies, and science. We will begin preparing for
the sacrament of Reconciliation in December/January. Your child will have
the opportunity to receive First Reconciliation during Lent.
CLASS WEBSITE
Homework will be posted each day on the class website. Please save this
website to your Favorites/Bookmarks. Check the announcements section as I
will post updates and reminders.
LABELS/ENVELOPES
It is extremely important that you label everything, especially school
sweaters and gym uniforms. This helps ensure that all items find their way
back to their proper homes.
**Please do not allow your child to bring any toys to school unless
otherwise requested**
Please send all money to school in envelopes – Pizza Hut money, supply
money, etc. – with your child’s name and what the money is for written on
it. I would also appreciate it if you would try to send in exact change,
especially for Pizza Hut (we do not accept checks for Pizza Hut).
ABSENCES & TARDIES
It is important that your child makes up the work that is missed due to
being absent. You may call me at school for assignments if there is not a
sibling/neighbor to bring the work home.
Remember that your child is TARDY if he/she arrives after 8:10 and he/she
will need to stop at the office for a late slip. If your child is tardy,
he/she will miss valuable instructional time. He/she also misses completing
morning assignments.
If you know that your child will be missing a day of school, please send me
a note ahead of time. If your child is unexpectedly absent, please send a
note of explanation when he/she returns to school. Absent notes are
required by the school and will be kept on file.
BUS / CARLINE / CARES
If your child is going home in a different way than is usual, please send me
a note. If I do not have a note, your child will be sent home the usual
way.
If your child is supposed to ride a different bus home with a friend, please
send a note beforehand so the office can prepare a bus pass. No child will
be permitted on another bus without a bus pass.
Please call the office to inform us of any last minute changes in
transportation. Mrs. Delp will tell me about the change.
MARBLE JAR / COLOR CHANGE
The class earns marbles when they demonstrate appropriate behavior and when
they are complimented on their great behavior by another adult. When the
class earns all the marbles, we will vote on a reward. If the class is not
demonstrating appropriate behavior, they will lose some of the marbles they
have gained.
Color Change: Each child begins the day on green. Your child will be told
to change his/her card to yellow is he/she is not behaving appropriately.
If your child’s card is on yellow, he/she can work to change the card back
to green by the end of the day by demonstrating appropriate behavior.
If the inappropriate behavior continues, your child may be told to change
his/her card to red. Once your child’s card is on red, he/she cannot change
it back to green that day. If your child physically hurts another student,
he/she will go directly on red. He/she will write a note home to you about
why he/she is on red. The note is to be signed and returned the next day.
No note will be sent home if your child is on yellow.
At the end of each day your child will color in the "Comments" section at
the bottom of each day's homework. This will show you how your child
behaved that day. I ask that you take a moment to sign the calendar each
night. Your signature shows me that you have seen the calendar.
CLASS SCHEDULE
The school day runs from 8:10am – 2:50pm. It is very important that your
child be here on time as we begin our learning process right away. A
typical day is as follows:
Morning work
Morning meeting
Religion
Math
Snack
ILA
Lunch and recess
DEAR (Drop Everything And Read)
ILA
Science/Social Studies (each once a week)
Specials at various times
SPECIALS
Please make sure your child wears gym clothing on Gym days and brings
his/her library books for Library:
Tuesday – Gym, Art
Wednesday – Library, Music
Thursday – Tech
DEAR
Each day we will have some time for quiet reading. Your child may bring
books from home to read or he/she may borrow a book from our classroom
library.
HOMEWORK
Students should read at home at least 20 minutes per night. There will
usually be a page of math homework each night. Religion and handwriting
homework will usually alternate days. As we have a spelling test each
Friday, it is expected that your child studies the words each night. Other
assignments will occasionally be assigned. Homework is due the following
morning unless otherwise noted.
Please do not do the homework for your child. Help is expected and
encouraged; however, by physically doing the homework for your child, he/she
is not learning or reviewing the work.
TESTS
Tests will be sent home in a special test folder. When test papers come
home, they must be signed and returned to school the following day in the
test folder. Signing the tests tells me that you and your child reviewed
the test together. The tests are then filed in my filing cabinet and will
be sent home at the end of each trimester.
SPELLING
Each Monday your child will write down the week’s spelling words in his/her
homework book. Each night the spelling homework will be to study these
words for the spelling test each Friday.
When it comes to the spelling grade on each report card, this grade does not
only come from the spelling tests. It also comes from your child’s spelling
when he/she is writing something in class. If your child receives all “O”s
on his/her spelling tests this does not necessarily mean he/she will receive
an “O” on the report card.
MATH FACTS REVIEW
Please take time each evening to review math facts with your child through
the use of flashcards or another activity. We will begin the year with
addition and subtraction. We will not do multiplication until the second
half of the school year. It is necessary that your child knows the basic
math facts.
TAKE HOME FOLDER
The Take Home Folder will go home every afternoon and should be returned
every morning. Any papers in the pocket marked “Keep At Home” are to stay
home. Any papers in the pocket marked “Return To School” should be reviewed
and/or signed/filled out, returned to the folder pocket, and come back to
school the following day. Please check your child’s folder every night.
BOOK CLUBS
The children have the opportunity to order books from Scholastic book clubs
on a regular basis. The book order will usually come home on a Monday. I
request that the orders are returned by the end of the same week so that I
can place the orders on Friday evening. Orders arrive within two weeks and
are sent home as soon as they arrive. If you place an order, make checks
payable to SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUBS and not to myself (please NO CASH as book
clubs do not accept cash). Each order helps to earn free books and teaching
materials for our classroom; however, there is never any obligation to
order. If you have more than one child in Sacred Heart ordering from book
clubs, please do not combine orders. Each teacher orders for her own class
and this will only lead to confusion and a delay in the order. Thank you!
NDS LUNCH ORDERS
NDS orders for the following month usually come home on a Monday. They are
due on the Friday of that same week. Please make sure to mark your child’s
hot lunch days on your calendar at home.
SNACKS
We have snack everyday mid-morning. Please make sure your child has a snack
each day and that your child knows where his/her snack is in his/her
lunchbox or schoolbag. Please try to make sure that the snack is a healthy
one that is quick and easy to eat. Do not send in a drink for snack. We
have a water fountain in our classroom for drinks.
CELEBRATING BIRTHDAYS / HOLIDAYS
You are more than welcome to send in a birthday treat for the class on your
child’s birthday. Please plan a simple treat that is easy to serve (if you
send in cake or brownies, please make sure they are precut) and napkins
would be appreciated.
If you are planning a party for your child, please mail the invitations,
UNLESS you plan on inviting the ENTIRE CLASS. We do not want any hurt
feelings.
I like to keep things simple in the classroom when it comes to holidays.
The children and I will celebrate in our own way, but we will not have
classroom parties.
PIZZA HUT
On First Fridays your child has the option of getting one or two slices of
pizza. Each slice costs $1.50. The money needs to be in by Friday morning
(although I prefer that it comes in by Thursday) so that the office can call
early enough to order the pizzas. If you would like your child to get
pizza, please send the money (cash, no pennies) to school in a sealed
envelope with your child’s name on the front. Please send exact payment as
it is oftentimes very difficult to send home change. If you have more than
one child in the school, please send a separate order with each child.
Milk can be purchased separately for $.40. Your child is to hold onto
his/her milk money until lunch on Friday. I do not collect the milk money
on Pizza Hut days.
ATTENDING MASS
I take going to mass very seriously. I would appreciate it if you remind
your child of proper church behavior each time you attend mass. I have told
the students that we enter the church quietly and we genuflect before we
enter the pews. We kneel down and say a prayer once we have entered the
pew. When we kneel, our backs are straight, hands are folded in front of
us, and our bottoms do not touch the pew behind us. When we are sitting,
our feet are not on the pews or the kneelers and our backs are touching the
back of the pew. We do our very best to sing each song as singing is a form
of prayer.
FIRST RECONCILIATION
Your child will have the opportunity to receive First Reconciliation during
Lent. There will be an evening prayer service on Thursday, February 19th in
the church. After this prayer service you are to take your child to
Reconciliation during Lent. Your child will be given a certificate which
he/she will give to Father at the time of his/her first confession. Father
will sign it and send it to the school so we know your child has received
his/her First Reconciliation.
We will begin using our Reconciliation books in December/January, but it is
never too soon to start discussing Reconciliation with your child. Talking
about why we go to confession, what happens in the confessional, and going
over the Ten Commandments and what each one means is helpful.
CLASSROOM RULES AND EXPECTATIONS
On our first day of school we talked about what rules we should have in our
classroom. We came up with two main rules:
• Love as Jesus loves
• Respect ourselves and others
We listed some things to remind us what it looks like when we follow these
two rules:
• Share
• Be kind
• Forgive
• Listen
• Follow directions
• Be helpful
ALLERGIES
I have a pet cockatiel that might make an appearance once or twice this year
and I would like to ask if any of the students have any allergies to bird
feathers. If your child has any allergies that I need to know about
(peanuts or other foods, etc.), please tell me right away. If your child
has a peanut allergy or allergy to another food, I would appreciate it if
you could send me a list of snack foods that your child is able to eat so
when someone brings in a birthday treat we know if your child is able to eat
it. I would like to have some snack foods set aside for your child, just in
case a treat comes in that he/she is not able to eat. I do not want him/her
to be left out of having a special treat.
COMMUNICATION BETWEEN HOME AND SCHOOL
I am always eager to hear from you, whether it be a note, a phone call at
school (610-932-3633), email (kwhoriskey@mail.com), or conference.
Thank you and God bless!
Miss Whoriskey
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