M s. Gregersen Second Grade Flagstaff Academy

1. Ms. Gregersen Second Grade Flagstaff Academy

2. Hello! My name is Kelsey Gregersen and this is my first year here at Flagstaff and my 5th year teaching overall. I have taught second grade my whole teaching career and couldn’t imagine being in any other grade! I am a Colorado native, but attended college in Texas. I received my Bachelor’s in Early Childhood and Elementary Education from Abilene Christian University. Being a Colorado girl at heart, I quickly moved home after college and began my teaching career. I took two years off of teaching, where I owned an in-home childcare. Realizing my heart and passion is in the classroom, I returned to teaching. In my free time, I love being outdoors. I love hiking (especially climbing 14ers), camping, running, and this summer I discovered a love for stand-up paddle boarding! While I don’t have human children of my own, I do have a fur baby named Macy. I also love traveling and exploring new places as well as spending time with my family. I spend football season cheering on my Denver Broncos, even though I’ve been a very sad Broncos fan the last couple of seasons! I am so excited to be a Dragon and we are going to have an amazing year! About Me...

3. Class Schedule Ms. Gregersen’s Daily Schedule

4. Specials Rotation Specials Schedule (STAMP) Includes: Science Lab, Tech Lab, Art, Music, and P.E. We have Library (LMC) every Tuesday from 10:00-10:30 We have Greenhouse every other Thursday

5. Mr.Sumnicht, P.E. Mr. Mieras, Music Ms. Link, Art Mr. Kerbel, Smart Lab Ms. Wolf, Science Lab Ms. Cole, Greenhouse Elementary Special’s Team “Our mission is to provide students with enriching experiences that develop a skill set for a well rounded education and which promotes 21st century learning.”

6. Communication I strongly believe in the parent/teacher/student relationship and that it truly takes all parts to ensure the best outcome for students. This being said, I believe in frequent and open communication throughout the school year. The best way to reach me is through email. You can expect to see a couple of emails from me every week. Additionally, my teammates and I update our 2nd Grade Weekly Newsletter at the beginning of every week. Here you can see what we are learning for the week, and be reminded of anything important or coming up. Other communication comes in Friday Folders or Homework Folders. *Please note that I do not check email after 4:00. I will read emails the next day.

7. Friday Folders • On the last day of the school week, typically a Friday, your child will come home with their stuffed Friday Folder. • Inside, you will find graded and completed work, important information from the office and/or the teacher. • We HIGHLY recommend that parents go through ALL graded or completed work every weekend with your children. In addition, if your child ever has a grade that they are not pleased with on a test or in class work, we encourage students to redo their mistakes on a separate sheet of paper and return it back in the Friday Folder. The teacher will then review it and give partial credit back. • We ask that students bring back Friday Folders on Monday or the first day of the following school week.

8. Homework Homework notebooks will come home each Monday and should be returned on Friday. Students are asked to complete the Tic-Tac-Toe spelling activities using the spelling words of the week (those are included in the notebook). Students need to show this work in their notebooks. Notebooks can stay home during the week for this practice. We ask that each student read at least 20 minutes each evening to help build their read to self and/or read to others stamina. Please help create a positive reading relationship and culture in your home for your child so that they learn to really love and value reading. Please read TO them as well. They are never too old to be read to, and it is one of the many ways they learn to read! Students need to complete one lesson of i-Ready math per week. Logins will come home in homework notebooks.

9. Spelling Homework Activities

10. PBIS Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports • A framework to encourage a positive school climate and culture • A way for schools to encourage good behavior • With PBIS we explicitly teach students about behavior just like they would any other subject • The focus is on prevention, not punishment • Behavior expectations have been mapped out by locations for: classrooms, hallways and passing zones, bathrooms, lunchroom, playground, and assemblies • Staff will uniformly teach and reinforce behavior • Communication updates to parents

11. Dragon PRIDE The core virtues of PRIDE are simple to teach, and give common terminology and guidelines for success that will be used school-wide. Assemblies on late start days will provide fun and interactive lessons to keep the focus and excitement going!

12. Positive Reinforcements Include: • 5:1 positive to negative interactions • Grade-level classroom currency and rewards • PRIDE Tickets connected to Dragon PRIDE • Dragon Recognitions • Dragon Heroes • Pizza Parties

13. CHAMPS Classwide Positive Behavior Support or CHAMPS is Flagstaff’s school wide classroom management system! CHAMPS has been around a long time and is a proven way to set expectations for students in the classroom and across the school. It is a positive approach to classroom management. CHAMPS answers the question “What should I be doing during this lesson or activity?” These expectations will be stated by a CHAMPS poster at the beginning of a lesson, transition, or any other time during the day. There is also movement that goes along with setting the expectations that students can do as well.

14. CHAMPS Expectations Conversation: What is my voice level? Voice Level O (Silent) Voice Level 1 (Whisper) Voice Level 2 (Quiet Voice) Voice Level 3 (Presentation Voice) Help: How do I get my questions answered? Raise my hand Thumbs up Ask my neighbor Ask my group Activity: What am I working on? Whole Class Independent Work Sticky Hand Partner Group Work Movement:What is my body doing? Staying in my seat Finding one place to work in the room Safe movement around the room Hand in completed assignment Participation: How do I show/am participating? Listening with my eyes and ears Reading and Writing Making respectful discussion Listening and taking notes

15. Behavior and Rewards System • I like to keep my classroom management techniques positive. In our class we earn Effort Tickets, which we can trade in for special activities or rewards. • Pride Tickets can be earned from any teacher/staff member in the building. You will see these come home. Please talk with your child about their ticket and celebrate their success! • Marble Jar- class earns marbles to work towards a class reward. • If we have continued negative behavior, you will be contacted and we will work together to find a solution appropriate for your child.

16. Math 2nd-5th enVision 2.0 is in the second year of implementation for our math curriculum for the elementary school Our Math Pathways for K-5 have been updated. Parents will have access to our school math website that is currently being built to provide resources/details about our updated math curriculum and pathways. A Home-School Connection letter will be sent to families at the beginning of each new topic in the Friday Folder.

18. CKLA Listening and Learning (Domain) • Listening and Learning is a time for students to listen to Core Knowledge stories and classical literature being read by their teacher. During this time, students are exposed to more complicated vocabulary and more difficult leveled texts, but are being challenged to practice and master their listening skills. After every story, the class and teacher will discuss different types of questions, such as evaluative, literal, and inferential to help them understand their reading better. • Students are then able to apply what they are learning about the literature in a variety of ways. • We recommend discussing the weekly vocabulary at home throughout the week.

19. History/Science • History and Science will be directly derived from the Core Knowledge Sequence. • Mrs. Reh will be coming into the classroom this year to provide technology lessons for our students - these will be amazing lessons! • If you would like to know what we will be studying throughout the year and when, please refer to the 2nd grade curriculum map or the weekly newsletter on the website.

20. CKLA Skills Spelling/Morphology: “Because students are still learning spellings for sounds it is not appropriate to expect perfect spelling at this point. In students’ daily writing, you should continue to accept phonemically plausible spelling. It is, however, important for students to understand conventional spelling is expected for written work completed by adults and older students. In Grade 2, we help students make this transition by beginning to include weekly spelling assessments. Students will receive spelling word lists to take home and practice at the beginning of the week. These words include the sound-spelling correspondences students have learned and reviewed, as well as Tricky Words. Students will be assessed on these same words at the end of each week.” Grammar: Throughout the year we will review and practice the use of punctuation, capitalization, and sentence structure. As we continue to add to their prior knowledge, students will practice through a variety of learning activities the components of grammar both in isolation, as well in various forms of context. Comprehension: Our class will read an at grade level reading passage and be asked to answer comprehension questions based on the passage.

21. Writing Workshop • Understand and practice the Writing Process: • Pre-Writing • Rough Draft • Revising • Editing • Conferencing • Publishing • Understand, practice and use the 6 Traits in writing, which include - Ideas, Organization, Sentence Fluency, Conventions, Voice, & Word Choice. • We will understand and write multiple genres throughout the year: • Descriptive writing, personal narratives, letters, poetry and researched reports, etc.

22. Reading Workshop Reading Workshop Model/Daily Five/CAFE includes: • Modeling what goes on in a reader’s mind. • Understand the CAFE menu: • Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expand Vocabulary • Using the I-Pick model to choose “Good Fit” books to read from • Reading Groups that meet one to two times a week, reading and answering questions from a book that has been provided to the group. • We will read and relate many different stories to self, world, and other texts throughout the year. • Having independent reading time to develop in engaging discussion about each student’s books • Building our READING STAMINA in reading a book for a long period of time. • Students will learn independence by choosing their activities for the day or our DAILY 5: • Read to Self, Read to Others, Listening to Reading, Work on Writing, and Word Work.

23. Handwriting • Our second grade goal is to teach, model, and practice legible print for both students and teachers to read. We will continue the 1st grade foundation and support moving to cursive in January.

24. Snack We eat snack1 time in the morning after recess and then again during the afternoon. ***Please put your child’s name on their snack!*** *Please pack two small, HEALTHY, non-messy, nut-free snacks. No cookies or chips, as the intention is to “refuel the brain.” Students can also eat during Driveline.

25. Food and Allergen Policy • All classrooms are Allergen Aware. No products with nuts listed in the ingredients are allowed in the classroom. • Nut products are allowed in the lunchroom as there is a special table designated for students with allergies. • Sometimes we have students with other food allergies. Please make your child’s teacher and the health clerk aware. • We encourage you to provide a safe treat for your child so they can participate in classroom celebrations. • Arrangements can be made with the teacher to store a small supply of treats in the classroom. • Please ask the teacher before bringing food into the classroom for special occasions. • If your child has a medical condition that we are unaware of, please contact our health clerk, Renee Moen, atrmoen@flagstaffacademy.org.

26. Hot Lunch • If your child receives hot lunch please stay on top of your payments. You can sign up online to have notices sent to you when your lunch funds are low. The school will allow 3 back-up lunches (you still pay for these) and after that no lunch will be provided. • Please make sure your child knows their lunch number and practices it at home! This helps getting through the lunch line faster and gives them more time to eat.

27. Birthdays My class is FOOD FREE for celebrations in the classroom. If your child would like to bring something to celebrate their birthday, they can bring a non-food treat, such as a pencil, eraser, stickers, etc. For class parties I will help the Room Mom carefully select food that will not contain allergens that students are sensitive to. We have nut and other food allergies in our classroom this year, so please be sensitive to that when picking snacks. If you are taking pictures at Flagstaff during a celebration, activity, field trip, etc… we ask that you please do not post any pictures on social media that show any children besides your own. We are abiding by the laws that require parent consent to show pictures publicly. Your considerate attention to this will help ensure everyone’s safety.

28. Lost and Found Please put your child’s name on everything- lunch boxes, backpacks, gloves, jackets, sweatshirts, etc. Lost and found items will only stay for one week, so please check often for missing items.

29. Volunteers! Our school could not run as smoothly as it does without your help. We have many volunteer positions available! * If you do sign up to help in the classroom please make sure it is something that you are able to commit to for the whole year. *If you cannot come on your volunteer day please arrange for one of our sub volunteers to come in for you. Please see volunteer signup form on back table.

30. Dress Code Reminders • Shirts cannot have logos/pictures larger than an index card! • Sneakers must be worn on PE day. Student grades reflect forgotten sneakers, after a few reminders. • Boots must be worn when snow is on the ground otherwise students must stay on sidewalk during recess. Students can’t walk or play in snow without boots. • All shoes must be closed toe. • Shirts cannot have spaghetti straps, or tank top style sleeves.

31. Wish List Thank you for your donations, they are greatly appreciated!  • Whiteboards (Amazon Whiteboards) • Floor lamps (2)- these can be old ones you don’t want, nothing fancy! • Clear packing tape • Sandwich size Ziploc bags • Dragons to decorate our room :)

32. Website: Coming soon! (Link will be sent in an email)

33. Thank you for coming! We are going to have a great year!!!!