Welcome to First Grade!

1. Welcome to First Grade! Deerwood Elementary 2014-2015

2. Procedures MORNING ROUTINE Doors open at 7:30 AM. After 7:30, all students should go to the cafeteria and stay there until dismissed by supervising staff members. TARDIES Instruction begins at 8:00. Students arriving at school after 8:00 will be considered tardy and must be accompanied to the office by a parent for a tardy slip.  Also, students must be in the building at 9:55 AM to be counted present.  Those who leave before 9:55 AM or arrive after 9:55 AM will be considered absent.

3. Absences If your child is absent, you have 2 days to send a written excuse (or e-mail) or a doctor's note.  If a note is not received within 48 hours of their return to school, the absence will be considered a TRUANCY.  Please help us by checking your child's attendance records in Home Access Center.  *Note: Please check Student Handbook Pages 14 and 17 for changes regarding compulsory attendance and doctor’s notes.

4. Dismissal Changes If your child needs to go home a different way than "regular daily dismissal", you must send a note in the morning on the day of the change.  Without a note, your child will be sent home according to the dismissal information we have on file.  If you plan on sending an email, please email the office AND your teacher.

5. Rainy Day Dismissal If there is lightning, no student will be allowed to walk or ride their bike home. This decision is made at 3:00 by administrators. Your child will be dismissed according to your directions on the rainy day dismissal form you complete today. Please establish a pick-up routine with your child so that they know what to do in the event of a rainy day dismissal.

6. Birthdays BIRTHDAY TREATS If you wish to purchase birthday treats for your child, please contact the cafeteria at least 2 weeks in advance.  By law, treats brought from home are no longer permitted. INVITATIONS According to the HISD Parent Student Handbook, students are not allowed to pass out party invitations or thank you notes at school.

7. Parent Student Handbook Updates • Compulsory Attendance: p. 14 • Doctor Notes: p. 17 • Bullying: p. 18 • Dress Code: p. 34 • Technology: p. 35 • Pledge of Allegiance: p. 82

8. DWE Donor Fund No more door-to-door fundraising!!!! • Contribution through the Humble ISD Education Foundation • 100% comes back to the school • You choose the amount • You choose one-time or monthly installments • Guaranteed benefit to our students

9. First Weeks of School • There will be no parent visitation during the first two weeks of school, including lunch time, as we are establishing our routines. • Homework folders will come home no sooner than the first full week of school (September 8). • Please be sure to send a water bottle with your child each day. We will be having recess and/or PE outside each day.

10. Communication • Your child will bring home a daily folder that includes a daily conduct sheet. This is an important way for us to communicate. Please look at the folder each night, sign, and return daily. • Transportation changes, notes from home, etc. may be returned to your child’s teacher by using the daily folder. • Please check Dolphin Mail and the First Grade website weekly to receive important information concerning our grade level or school wide events. Please watch the Deerwood home page to sign-up to receive the newsletter online. • First Grade Web Page

11. Snacks • We will have a daily snack break. • Please provide a healthy snack for your child each day (ex: apples, pretzels, goldfish). Teachers are not allowed to supply children with food. • It is also a good idea to send a waterbottle with your child.All water bottles need to be labeled using a permanent marker.

12. Conduct • We have a grade level-wide conduct procedure that positively rewards student behaviors. • Please refer to the packet on our grade-level web page to familiarize yourselves with these procedures. This will be communicated in your child’s daily folder.

13. Reading • Instructed through guided, shared, and group reading books. • Practice will be administered at home through the use of the take home readers, which will begin coming home sometime after the first six weeks of school. • Focus on making connections, visualizing, inferencing, questioning, and summarizing fiction and nonfiction text.

14. Word Study/Spelling • Words Their Way • Each week we will study a new spelling pattern. • Students sort words based on patterns and sounds. • The goal is not for students to just memorize the spelling words but to be able to transfer their spelling knowledge to reading and writing.

15. Math • Includes number sense, number operations, problem solving, logical reasoning, and geometry. • Reinforced through independent work, group work, and through the use of manipulatives. • New district textbook adoption, EnVisions, along with other resources. • Knowing basic addition and subtraction facts using numbers 1-20 is critical for your child’s success. Practice at home will help greatly.

16. Writing • 6 traits of writing (conventions, ideas, voice, word choice, organization, and sentence fluency) • Modeled, shared, and independent writing lessons. • Students will become authors who will write in their own journals and publish their own stories.

17. Science • The scientific processes • Life science • Physical science • Earth science • Challenge, inquiry and guided instruction

18. Social Studies Focus on • Community • Historical figures (ex. Abraham Lincoln) and events • Texas • Needs and wants • Customs in different cultures

19. Dates to Remember • Early Release at 12:00 Friday, August 29 (lunch in the classroom) • Labor Day holiday Monday, September 1 (no school) • Early Release at 12:00 Wednesday, September 17 (lunch in the classroom)

20. Thank you! We look forward to a great year and meeting with you in October!