Monday, March 9

2nd Grade Expectations

1st and 2nd Grade teachers recently got together to discuss any issues they are seeing as the kids progress from 1st to 2nd.  One of the issues brought up was the children's lack of experience with time and money.  This is treated as a "life skill" in 1st grade.  It is touched upon during our calendar math time, homework, and periodically when I call attention to it.  This is something that can be easily practiced at home.  A parent one year would make her daughter count the change that she found around the house.  If she counted correctly, she could keep it.  Talk about an incentive to learn!  Point out the clock at home when you tell your child they have 30 minutes to play their game.  See if they can identify where the "big hand" is headed or where it is at during that moment.  We've discussed hour and half hour, but I don't feel that is rooted in many of them as we move on to discuss 15 minutes.
In addition to the time/money issue, handwriting and capitalization and punctuation were addressed.  This is yet another thing that needs to be reinforced as you were one-on-one with your child.  I encourage you to go over their work for the week.  Praise them for the wonderful job they do and make them re-do things they have done incorrectly.  I set aside time at the end of the week to have children correct and finish work, but sometimes it needs to go beyond this.  Many of the kids are STILL forgetting capitals and periods at the end of something simple like their spelling sentence.  The more it is addressed and practiced, the more en-grained it will be.  
As always, continue to have your child read nightly to increase fluency and comprehension.

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