Welcome to 2nd Grade

Dear Students and Parents,
Welcome to 2nd Grade at Elk Meadows Elementary. My name is Mrs. Liz Taylor and I am looking forward to getting to know my new students, and their parents. I hope you students have enjoyed a nice break from school and are now ready to get started learning again. I am excited to get to know all of you.

I am hoping we can use this blog as a means of communication to help us all be aware of what is going on at school, what homework assignments are due and so we can also share some of the fine work of the students through this technology. I am hoping you will check this blog at least once or twice a week to stay current on what is going on.

You can contact me through my school email which is elizabeth.taylor (at) jordan.k12.ut.us or by phone at the school 801-446-3200, or just send a note to school on the back of your child's tracking sheet and I will return a note the same way.

My philosophy is to try to make school a place your child will enjoy coming to and then to help them learn those things that will help them build a strong foundation in math, literacy, writing, science and the other areas of whole child education. My first and most important rule is that we must always be honest. Next we must respect ourselves, others and the property or environment. Thirdly we need to do our best work.

I try to encourage the children through positive talk such as, "Your handwriting is much improved." , "I love how you are following the directions that I gave you." , "I appreciate how Joe is walking so quietly in the hall today," etc. I use a system of class points and individual tokens that the children earn by doing their work and following the rules. The tokens are used to buy things at the Token Store which is held about six to eight times during the year. The store is parent supported with donations of inexpensive items the children will enjoy buying. I usually need one volunteer to help run the store on those Token Store days. I would greatly appreciate your support for this activity as it truly is a wonderfully successful incentive program to encourage responsibility in the children both in their work and in their behavior.

It would be helpful if your child had the following items:
A pencil box - about 6" by 9"
A backpack
A water bottle
A set of 12 colored pencils

The classroom temperature varies greatly - as fall approaches I would encourage you to send a jacket to school to stay here for the times when the room is too cool for your child.

Often I have students who brag about how they stay up until 11:00 at night. All of the research as well as common sense tells us that children of this age need nearly 10 hours of sleep a night or more. If they do not get this sleep their ability to learn and their behavior in the classroom is impared. I can see it in individuals and in the class when they have not had enough sleep. I would encourage you to set up a family routine concerning homework and bedtime that will be the best for your child's health and education.

I see education as a three legged stool; the teacher, the student and the parents are the legs on the stool. Without any one of them the education is unbalanced and less than the strong foundation that each child deserves. Please be involved by helping your child with homework on a nightly basis. Then if you can please volunteer your time to help in our classroom either as a room mother, party hleper, filed trip volunteer, spelling volunteer, in the classroom on a regular basis or by doing things at home to help prepare materials. Any of the following donations would also be greatly appreciated:
boxes of facial tissue
band aids
hand sanitizer
glue sticks
dry-erase markers
Zip-Lock bags - snack or quart size

We are in need of a Room Mother who will correlate things with the other volunteers.
We need helpers to check homework folders each morning - this takes about 30 minutes.
We need volunteers in the classroom each morning from 10:15 - 11:30 to help students with centers while I teach reading in small groups. (Tuesday would be 10:30 - 11:30.)
We need 2-3 volunteers to help on Thursday mornings with grading and pretesting spelling so that we can continue the individualized spelling program we have set up.
We need 1-2 volunteers to help check the math games in and out on Friday mornings.

The basic schedule for our class is as follows:
8:30 - 8:45 - Opening
8:45 - 10:00 - Math
10:00 - 10:15 - Word Wall or Fluency
10:15 - 11:30 - Guided Reading and Centers
11:30 - 12:15 - Lunch
12:15 - 12:30 - Spelling lesson
12:30 - 1:15 - Writing
1:15 - 2:00 - Rotation (Music, Science, Social Studies, Art, Math Games)
2:00 - 2:15 - Recess
2:15 - 2:45 - Independent Reading and Comprehension
2:45 - 3:15 - Vocabulary
3:15 Prepare to dismiss
3:25 Dismiss

On Tuesday we will have PE at 9:15 - 10:00, Library 10:00 - 10:30, and Computers 12:15 - 1:00.

I hope to see all of you parents at Back to School Night. I am excited for this new year and the opportunity to help in the education of your students.