Classroom Policies

1. Organizational Skills and Discipline

We would like your cooperation in helping your child develop good organizational skills this year. Your child will have a daily green folder that will include their Behavior Chart for the six weeks. You will need to initial it nightly. Please do not remove this form from the folder. If the chart is lost, your student will not receive the Citizenship Award for the six weeks. I will keep the chart at the end of the six weeks and replace it with a new one. Please review the behavior chart and discuss it with your child. Encourage good citizenship! The chart clearly defines expectations. The whole school is following the same behavior plan. Second grade is limited to 7 check marks before losing the Citizenship Award at the end of the six weeks. Please understand that warnings will be given before a check mark.

Every Monday the children will bring home a white Monday Mail Folder. Please look in this for important information. I will also include my newsletter in the Monday mail folder. Daily and graded work will come home in the green folder.

2. Subject Areas

Language Arts

Reading comprehension, writing and vocabulary will be stressed. Weekly tests over comprehension will be given, including vocabulary. Spelling tests will also be every week. Words will be sent home weekly and I will include them on the weekly newsletter. We will also work heavily on the writing process.

Handwriting

Manuscript D'Nealian will be taught. We will have to master neatness in our printing before we can move to cursive. We will officially begin cursive second semester.

Math

We will follow our district curriculum and textbook, but also incorporate additional daily problem solving. We will use many various manipulatives and use the “hands on” approach. The last six weeks of school we will be working on multiplication and division. We will do Target Math on a daily basis.

Social Studies, Science, Health

Social Studies and Science will be taught every other day. Each unit ends with a culminating project. There will be some units that require home projects. Health will be incorporated throughout the year.

3. Birthdays

Birthday invitations are only to be passed out at school if the whole class is invited. Your child will be recognized by myself with a certificate and goody bag and on the morning announcements. Summer birthdays will be recognized at the end of the school year.

4. Lunch

The second graders will eat lunch from 11:30-12:00. We request that you limit eating lunch with your child to a special occasion. Please discuss with your child how many “extra” snacks they are allowed to get. You can also limit them with the cafeteria. Please put money on your student's lunch account even if they do not plan on buying their lunch. This will come in handy if they ever forget their lunch.

5. Water bottles and snacks

The children may bring a healthy snack every day to be eaten mid-morning. They may not share snacks. We ask that you do send in water bottles due to the Texas heat! To prevent spills, please make sure the bottles have a sports top or pop top .

6. Student of the Week

I will choose one student weekly to be the Star Student. When your child is chosen, please send in the poster sent home with your child to be displayed in the classroom.. The Star Student will have special privileges in the class for that week. Every student will be a Star Student.

7. Field Trips

Only parents that have had a background check will be allowed to go on the field trip. We do not know when this will be so please be prepared with your background check.

8. Conferences

I will be scheduling conferences during the first sememter and again in the second semester. If there is a need we will have one sooner. Please call or email me anytime with any questions or concerns.

9. Email

You may email me at: lairdh@lisd.net I will do my best to respond in a reasonable manner. My conference time is 2:00 p.m. to 2:50 p.m.. Please email me at anytime, but in case of emergency, call the school.

10. Homework

Your child will receive a weekly homework packet every Monday. There will be an outline of when to complete the assignments, but your child may work at their own pace. I like to give the homework on Mondays so as a family you can work around schedules. The homework packet will be due on Fridays. If your student has a valid excuse for not having their homework, please send a note. Without a note, the homework will be late and the student will receive a check.

11. Absences

Please call the school office before 8:30am on any morning that your child will be absent. Your child must have a written note when returning to school regarding the absence. Please read carefully the LISD policy concerning excused and unexcused absences. It can be found in the Donald Handbook.