Welcome To Lincoln

Elementary School and the

Second Grade!

Miss Golbek (Room 31)

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Lincoln School
bgolbek@kesd.org
Welcome to Lincoln School and to the Second Grade! I am very excited to have
your child in my class. This year your child will be learning many new things, as well as
having fun! I am looking forward to getting to know and working with both you and
your child throughout the year.
The first line of communication between school and home is your childs blue
homework folder. I will include notes about upcoming events, a weekly newsletter,
homework, requests for items that are needed in class, reminders, etc. in that folder.
This folder needs to be returned to school daily with your child. Please check your
childs folder each night (even on Fridays!).
Before and After School
Students may enter the auditorium or cafeteria for breakfast at 7:30 am.
Please remind your student if they are supposed to be going to the cafeteria for
breakfast in the morning as there is no master list or anyone on that will be reminding
them. The first bell rings at 8:00 and this is when they should be heading to their
classroom. Your child will need to go to the office and get a tardy slip if they arrive
after school has started. Your child will be marked tardy if they arrive after 8:05
a.m.
Please be on time picking up your child after school. We are dismissed at 2:15.
If your childs transportation is going to change for the day, please call the
office so I can be notified. All changes in routine need to be made before 1:00 p.m.,
if possible. The school policy states that children who normally ride the bus must
have a note if they are not riding the bus, and likewise children who are normally
picked up cannot ride the bus without a note. All students who ride the bus must
have a form on file with Southwest Transportation. You may call the school office at
897-5141 and they will notify me of changes. You may also send a note with your
child, or e-mail me at bgolbek@kesd.org. If you have questions regarding the buses,
please contact Southwest Transportation at 644-1000.
Student of the Month: Character Counts Program
Lincoln School encourages good citizenship. Student of the Month is recognition
of good citizenship. Every month I will be selecting one student as Student of the
Month. Unfortunately, there are only 9 months and I have 26 students; therefore,
not everyone will get Student of the Month. Encourage your child to do his/her best
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and to always be kind and helpful!

End of the Year Awards:
1. Perfect Attendance or Perfect Academic Attendance
2. Accelerated Reader goal met 2 out of 3 trimesters
Lunch Money/Lunches
Your child may pay for lunches in the morning, before school begins, in the
office. You may also drop lunch payments off in the office. There is a drop box on
the front counter. Lunch is from 11:25 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
Attendance/Make-Up Work
Regular attendance at school is very important to your childs learning. Please
make sure that your child attends school regularly and arrives on time. If you know in
advance that your child will be absent, please notify both myself and the school
office, so that I may prepare work for them to do in their absence. If your child is
unable to attend school, please notify the office BEFORE 8:00 a.m. on each day that
your child is absent. All missed work must be completed and attached to an
attendance contract. You must sign and date the contract, in order for your child to
receive the work.
Chaperones
If you wish to be a chaperone on a trip, you need to submit a volunteer form and
a copy of a TB skin test. You must be cleared by the district office before you may
attend a field trip. If you were cleared last year, you do not need to submit a new
form. You may not bring other people or children with you while you work in the
classroom. Chaperones are chosen through a lottery system as there are many
parents that want to be a part of them.
Birthday Parties
You may bring/send treats to school to celebrate your childs birthday. Parties
will be held on Fridays at 1:45 p.m. Please notify me ahead of time, so that I may plan
accordingly. The best things to bring/send are cupcakes or cookies. Also, please send
any necessary paper goods (i.e. plates, napkins). Drinks and treats must be packaged,
or produced in a commercial facility.

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Library
We will be visiting the school library on Thursday mornings. Books are
considered overdue after two weeks. Please help your child keep their library books
out the reach of younger children and take good care of them so that the books may
be enjoyed by other students. Students will be tested at the beginning of the year
for their AR level which will help them choose the right books. The students will read
books within their level and then will be required to take tests on these books. Goals
will be set for the students throughout the year and if these goals are reached, the
students will be able to participate in a few rewards. I will provide more information
about this as the year progresses.
Bathroom Breaks/Drinks:
Please have your child get a drink and use the restroom right before school
begins. Bathrooms can be used during class time if necessary. I will try to have
students wait until morning recess (9:50) and lunch recess to use the bathroom so
they do not miss class instruction.
Behavior & Responsibility:
We will use a clip chart system in class to keep track of students behavior.
Every student will start their day with a clothespin on Ready to Learn. Students can
move up and down the clip chart depending on their choices throughout the day. If
rules are broken, or they forget their homework, their clothespin moves to the yellow
area slow down, which is a warning. From there it moves to the orange area Think
About It which means miss recess and then down to the red area Parent Contract
where they will have to fill out a form and you will be contacted. Students who are
doing a good job can move their clothespins up to the blue area Great Job, or the
purple area Outstanding! At the end of the day, your child will record their
behavior level on a chart inside their blue homework folder. This chart should stay
inside their folder all week. Please check it each night and initial that you have seen
it. Students may miss out on center time, special privileges, or recess for negative
behavior. I will make contact with you if I notice a problem so we can work together
to solve it. Being responsible is very important in second grade, so please emphasize
this to your child at home as well.
Homework

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Homework will be given to complete daily and in the form of weekly packets. A
log of weekly homework assignments is listed on the back of the newsletter that is
sent home at the beginning of each week. Homework will consist of math pages,
writing activities, spelling, sight words, and reading homework. Please make sure that
your child completes and returns ALL of their homework each day, so that I can
measure their progress. Occasionally, I will send home assignments for your child to
do over to correct his/her mistakes. Please remember that this is to the benefit of
your child and that helping them is absolutely encouraged, however they need to
complete the work on their own in their own handwriting. Your child will move their
clothespin down if their homework is not completed and returned each day.
Reading Homework Directions Room 31
1. Read the pages on the bookmark.
2. Answer the circled questions in a complete sentence (restate the question in the
answer). Parent should check answers.
3. Sign the bookmark with initials.
4. Put book, questions, and signed bookmark into the bag to return to school the next
day.
How to help your child with reading homework!
1. Read the homework questions assigned before reading the assigned pages.
2. Sit together where you can both see the book.
3. When your child struggles with a word, wait 3 seconds before assisting them with
the word. Your child should then reread the entire sentence using the correct word
and continue reading.
4. Praise your child for sounding out words or for attempting to sound them out.
5. Discuss the story before answering the questions.
6. Have your child orally tell you the answer to the question before starting to write.
Make suggestions in how to help make your childs answer more clear. All answers
must be written by the child. Please do not write out the answer for your child to
copy.
Common Core
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As you have read in the notes that already came home, we are teaching the Common
Core State Standards.
This is a shift to teaching less standards and going deeper into the content.
This new set of standards asks students to think deeper and develop a better
understand for why and how what they are learning is relevant as well as how to
explain what they are doing instead of just learning or memorizing different
processes. With this, it would be great to have conversations with your child at home
about what they are learning as that will stretch them even more to be able to explain
it to others. It also aligns California to the majority of the states as they have been
teaching the common core standards for some time. In the past, students from
California that moved to another state would not be prepared because we were
teaching state standards. Now, with Common Core, all students at each grade level will
be exposed to the same standards.
Lincoln School is in full implementation of the Common Core Standards. Some of
the other school sites are beginning. The expectation is that our district will fully
implement the common core by next year.
Assessments in the common core will come from teacher observation/recording
sheets, performance tasks, chapter tests, etc. Performance tasks are multi- level
assessments that ensure students are able to apply what they learned in the theme or
unit. Ex: students might be asked to read something and create a project
representing they understood what was read and were able to construct something
showing their acquired knowledge.
This is exciting for us as we look to include more fiction/non-fiction, connecting
it to other curricular areas, and teaching our students that they are able to apply
what was learned in a real world setting.

Curriculum:
*Reading Reading emphasizes enjoyment, fluency, phonics and comprehension.
Reading is also taught through the writing process. Children will receive whole class,
as well as small group reading instruction. We are using the Houghton-Mifflin reading
program. The program encompasses reading, phonics, spelling and grammar. Children
will also learn basic sight words, often referred to as high frequency words.
*High Frequency Sight word flash cards will be sent home at the beginning
of each week. At the beginning of each week your child will bring home words
that are used frequently in our reading books and those that do not following

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reading conventions and grammar rules. Your child will be tested on their
ability to READ these words each Friday.
*Spelling A list of spelling words will be sent home with your child at the
beginning of each week. They will need to study these words each night. A practice
spelling test will be given each Thursday, with a final test each Friday. Students who
receive 100% on the practice test do not have to take the final test.
*Writing Your child will write in their journals, as well as participate in mini
writing lessons. They will learn three main types of writing: narrative, informative,
and opinion. They will also be tested on different writing skills at the end of each
reading theme and different writing genres at the end of each trimester.
*Science Science will be presented using themes such as raisins, weather,
animals, plants, farming, etc.
*Social Studies We will explore rules and laws, where people live, our country,
our world, all about people and the marketplace. In addition, Social Studies will be
presented using themes such as historical people, holidays, presidents, etc.
*Math Math concepts are taught using manipulatives and then reinforced with
paper and pencil activities. We use the My Math program. Concepts that will be
presented this year include: reading, writing and counting to 120, addition and
subtraction to and from 20, telling time, counting coins, ordinal numbers, graphing,
more than and less than, place value, geometry, fractions and related facts. We will
be doing timed math facts as well. The goal is for each second grade student to
correctly solve 100 addition and 100 subtraction problems, with 95% or better
accuracy, 3 times within 4 minutes.
DRA Testing
Your child will be given the DRA (developmental Reading Assessment) test to
monitor their reading progress. The first test will be given at the end of August.
This test measures not only the students ability to decode words, but it measures
their skills in comprehension and retelling as well. This test will be given 3 times
throughout the school year. The results of this test will be used to place your child

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into a leveled reading group within the classroom. The goal for students entering is
Second Grade is level 16. The goal for students exiting Second Grade is level 28.
Grades/Parent Teacher Conferences
Your child will receive a report card for each of the three trimesters of the
school year. Parent-teacher conferences will be scheduled during the month of
October. At that time, I will update you on your childs progress to that point in the
trimester. We will then work together to set goals for your child for the rest of the
year. If you need a specific day or time, please let me know as soon as possible.
Understanding AR: Accelerated Reader
Accelerated Reader is an independent but required reading program. Each child
is tested at the beginning of the school year and is assigned a reading level/color to
simplify finding their books in the library. Your child may be on level orange, blue, red,
green, or brown. For example, your childs reading level could be red (2.0-2.9) which
means their reading level would be 2nd grade. Your child would then need to select
and read books matching this level.
Each week, students take 2 library books home and read these books for
understanding as well as pleasure. When they have finished the books they may take a
computerized multiple subjects test. Computers in the classroom are available daily
for AR testing. Correct answers will accrue points. Each student is given a point goal
that matches their reading level (some students may have higher goals than others).
Students may read more than 2 AR books each week, if they choose. AR reading is in
addition to other reading homework, but it is not assigned to a specific day. The
weekend is a great time to enjoy this relaxed form of reading, but it can be done
whenever is fits your family schedule. Students that meet their AR goal will enjoy a
celebration party at the end of each trimester.
At the beginning of each trimester students will retest and new AR goals and
color levels will be assigned.
NOTE: If you believe your childs AR level does not match his/her reading level,
please let me know. I would be happy to discuss it.
If you have specific concerns or questions, I may be reached at school at 8975141. The best times to call are during lunch (11:25 a.m. 12:15 p.m.) or after school
(from 2:30 3:15 p.m.). I may also be reached by e-mail bgolbek@kesd.org.
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Thank you for your help and cooperation! It is going to be a great year!

Brittany Golbek
Miss Golbek

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