Mrs. Ballnik's Second Grade

Friday, September 21, 2018
Newsletter, September 21, 2018
Classroom News from
Mrs. Ballnik’s Class My email is ballnic@dearbornschools.org
Friday, September 14, 2018
Important Days and Notes to Remember
The Book Bag and Math Homework note was sent home yesterday. Thank-you for reading it.
School calendars are located under the District news at the Dearborn Website.
Gym on Monday-Please remember to wear tennis shoes and bendable clothes (not jeans).
Parent Conferences are on November 8, 13 and 15 from 4:00 – 6:30 p.m.… Thank-you for signing up for parent conferences at Open House. If you were not able to come to Open House, please send me a note with the date/time and I will tell you if it is taken. If you email me, it will be easy for me to reply.
BOOK BAGS- PLEASE SEND IN A BOOK BAG THAT YOUR CHILD USED IN FIRST GRADE, IF YOU HAVE ONE. Thank-you if you have sent in your book bags, already. I am only loaning out book bags, if you did not send one in. The Book Bags have to be returned to me at the end of the year, if they are not yours.
Please read the note that was sent home on Thursday about Book Bags. Record the books on the Book Log.
PLANNER -Please bring them every day. We will start by putting spelling words in our planners. We will start out slowly with our planners. Use it as a homework folder, or supply your own, if you choose.
Please read through the Planner with your child. There are many things about what we do at school and useful items, such as the number grid inside the back cover. We had to tape glue in a number grid in the back of the Planner.
FRIDAY SPELLING TESTS – Next week’s spelling words follow the pattern of /e/ at the end of the word often makes a long vowel in a CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) and the vowels will be the /i/.
The spelling words are; did, fin, fine, pick, hike, rip, ripe, pipe, mix, bike. The 5 Dolch words will be; little, down, can, see, not. These are the 15 spelling words for September 24 – 28.
Every Friday there will be a spelling test. Please study the words and the spelling pattern. They will also get 5 words from the Dolch words (very common words in reading list) to practice. These will be written by your child in their planner on Mondays. Please practice every day with your child so that they will do well on the Friday Spelling test.
Spelling tests will be corrected and sent home on Monday. I don’t have time to correct and record them on Friday.
MATH – Keep reviewing addition and subtraction homework as it comes home. Homework is usually due the next day. Please continue to review addition sums to 10 and then above to 20 with your child.
I hope that the addition fact review homework is easy for your child. If your child has a hard time with the addition/subtraction homework, please work with real objects and flashcards because we will be using much higher numbers, eventually.
Thank-you for reading the parent letter about book bags and math homework that came home, yesterday.
We will guess a few mystery bags a day. Keep asking your child to describe things using their 5 senses.
We will continue to learn that our world is made up of Matter and ways TO DESCRIBE THAT MATTER, such as, words that tell its color, size, texture and shape. Can your child describe the mystery object that they ate on Tuesday? I brought it in a paper bag.
SOCIAL STUDIES- We continue to learn what a community is in Unit 1. Take a walk around your neighborhood and talk about the community (stores, parks, homes…).
We learned about history by making a quill pen and writing the way the people had to write in the 1700’s when the Constitution of the United States of America was signed! Did you see the quill pen come home?
READING- Read, Read, Read!
Please be sure that your child reads something at least 30+ minutes per day. In addition, reading aloud to your child is important also.
We are starting to improve our reading stamina and I am testing everyone in reading. This takes a while.
Star of the Week!
We will start the Star of the Week by having a name picked out of the can of sticks with everyone’s name on it. Each child will make an “I like (student’s name) because” _______page for the Star of the Week book that each Star will get. The Star also takes home a poster to fill out and bring back the next day to present to the class. Star students will get to be the line leader and have other special jobs!

Remember, the easiest way to communicate with me is by email, ballnic@dearbornschools.org and look at my BLOG on the Dearborn schools website.
Have a great weekend with your wonderful child!

Cheryl Ballnik