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What an exciting time for you and your child! This is the time when your child takes everything they learned in first grade and starts applying it to everyday activities. They become more independent and more confident. Second grade is very different from first grade and the expectations do go up. However, these expectations are not unattainable if they focus, always try their best, turn up their listening ears and are excited to learn!

Here are some things to be aware of as your child progresses through the year:

I really stress working together as a community in second grade. Our whole class is a part of the community, so we need to treat one another with respect. I teach the children right from the beginning that each one of us is special! We all think and learn in different ways and different paces, but we can all work together to achieve a goal. It is my goal and passion to teach children to care about who they are and love the person inside! I do the things I do because I care for each and every one of them and only want what is best for them. We also talk about how we are not perfect and we all make mistakes (myself included). However, it is all how we handle the mistakes and what we learn from them that make us better people. In order to be good members of our community, on the first day of school we worked together to come up with class rules. Here is what our class came up with: 1.) Be polite and a good helper 2.) Follow directions (the first time) 3.) Pick up after yourself 4.) Be safe I was really impressed with what they thought second graders should do and proud that they were able to think of such good rules! We also discuss that in order to stay in our community we must always try our best and make good choices.

As in any grade, good choices are a big part of growing up. I really stress that every good choice has rewards and every bad choice has consequences. Developing strategies to make good choices is difficult, but I always remind students to remember how they feel after a good choice is made. If they want that feeling again, then make a good choice!

I really believe in being responsible for your own actions. We start independent work and they are responsible for completing and turning in the work on time. This makes being responsible a very important skill in my classroom. I do give them plenty of time to finish their work, but if they run out of time, any unfinished work needs to go in their "work in progress " section of their take home folder. Whenever your child has free time during the day, this needs to be the first place they check. In order to take pride in your work you must put forth good effort! **Any work that isn't finished in class is homework and needs to come back to school the next day. They also need to take responsibility for their school supplies. We do have a community pencil tin. I collect all of the pencils at the beginning of the year. Every morning your child will get two sharpened pencils from the sharpened bin and return their two old pencils to the unsharpened bin. This way they always have a pencil and if one breaks they have a back up. They need to keep all art supplies in their pencil boxes, if they fit. When they are finished they should go right back in, this way they won't lose anything. Taking responsibility for their things is a good skill to have. I also teach the children to keep neat desks. This not only looks better but it is teaching them good organization skills. When you are organized you can find things quicker! When they need to put a paper back in their desk, instead of shoving it in all crumpled up, they need to put it in the proper folder. This way they won't lose it and know right where to look for it.

I love giving rewards to my students not only to build their confidence but to encourage them to always make good choices. However, I do not permit asking for rewards because they need to realize sometimes the reward is just feeling good about yourself. When a child asks to get a reward it isn't as special. Also, it is not their job to remind me, it is their job to learn to make good choices. This can be a difficult concept at first, because they usually are just trying to help or are so excited they can't wait. However, being patient and understanding that you don't always get rewarded for everything, is something that is good to teach now. This way, when they are older, the concept is easier.