1st and 2nd Grade

Ms. Jill Nelson

Jill Nelson earned her teaching credentials at Whitworth University and then later completed her Master’s at Washington State University. Jill moved to Pullman in 2009 to teach 3rd grade and coach Volleyball. Jill then taught a 1st and 2nd grade combination class for three years before teaching kindergarten.

First and Second Grade Daily Schedule
8:10 – 8:25 – Early Morning Recess
8:25 – 8:45- Welcome, Attendance, Lunch Count, Calendar, and Schedule
8:45 – 9:50 -Language Arts
9:50 – 10:00 – Recess
10:00 – 11:15 – Math
11:20 – 12:02 – Lunch and Recess
12:02 – 2:15 – Specials, Science, Social Studies
2:15 – 2:50 – Language Arts
2:50 – 2:55 – Prepare for Home and Dismissal

Class Supply List

Share Supplies- Please do not label
4 packages of #2 plain yellow pencils
6 glue sticks
1 box of quart or gallon sized Ziploc type bags
2 packages of hand wipes (i.e. Chlorox wipes)
2 boxes of facial tissue (Kleenex)

Please LABEL these items with your child’s name:

Water bottle- good closing lid
Crayola washable markers
Crayola crayons
Scissors
2 pencil boxes or pencil pouches (big enough to hold all pencils, markers, crayons and scissors
Backpack
PE shoes with non-black soles (need to be clean, but not necessarily new)
Paint shirt

Homework will go home each week. There will not be a lot of homework, but I believe that each item sent home is important practice. Please help your child complete the homework given and return it to school in the homework folder.

Not all work coming home will have a “grading” mark on it. If you notice wrong answers or sloppy work, feel free to help your child correct their work.

You may notice a check mark or star- this means that a teacher has seen it and it is complete. 

Parent Volunteers

I am so excited to invite parents in to the classroom to help! I will send home more information around November.

Links to Area Libraries

Lewiston Library
http://www.cityoflewiston.org/index.aspx?nid=91
Whitman County Library
http://www.whitco.lib.wa.us/
Colton Library –  A Brach of Whitman County Library
http://www.whitco.lib.wa.us/locationsandhours/colton.htm 
Uniontown Library – A Branch of Whitman County Library
http://www.whitco.lib.wa.us/locationsandhours/uniontown.htm
Neill Public Library, Pullman
http://www.neill-lib.org/Departments/Library/Default.aspx
Latah County Library, Moscow
http://www.latahlibrary.org

Process Writing Terms and Definitions
Prewriting 
Students use prewriting activities to discover topics they know and care about.  They talk about topics to develop a sense of purpose and the effect they want to have on their audience.  Talking helps children explore their topics before the writing begins.
Rough Draft
When students write a rough draft, they focus on getting ideas down on paper.  They think as they go, cross out, leave blanks, switch directions, use abbreviations, draw pictures, and write as much as they can.
*First and second graders’ homework is normally at the rough draft stage.  Children circle words they think are misspelled, add punctuation, and use capitalization with varying degrees of proficiency.
Revising
Students go back to what they have written.  They ask themselves:  “Do I make sense?”  “Have I said it in an interesting way?”  They add, cut, move words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs without tedious recopying.  They read aloud what they have written and discuss with the peers, teachers and/or volunteers.
Editing
Students check spelling, capitalization, punctuation, sentence structure, and word usage.  They do with peers, teachers and/or volunteers.
Publishing
Students or teachers make a clean, correct copy to share.  Students illustrate, make books, prepare presentations and/or read their pieces to an audience.

Reading Together
Before reading, take a few minutes to preview the piece.  This helps readers to tie this piece to personal experiences, interests, and/or similar books.  Continue a dialogue about the book during and after reading it.  If at any time it becomes apparent the book is too difficult for your child to read, read it to him/her instead.

Suggested Strategies to Decode Words
1.  Praise your child when he/she stops reading because he/she doesn’t know a word or the word didn’t make sense. This self-monitoring ability is an essential element of reading.
2.  Wait to see if your child can self-correct.
3.  Cue your child to use a decoding strategy.

• look at the pictures
• “stretch and shrink” the word
• reread beginning of sentence or phrase
• skip unknown word, read on, and return to the beginning of the sentence or phrase to try again
• think “What would make sense?” using word, picture, and context clues
• chunk it (look at the word in smaller parts

4.  Tell the unknown word.
Try saying “Would ________ make sense here?”
or
“Does ___________ sound right?”

Have fun reading!