Welcome to First Grade

1. Welcome to First Grade

2. Attendance Attendance is very important. Students cannot learn if they are not in school. Please review the attendance policy in the school handbook. School hours are 8:00 – 3:15 The tardy bell will ring at 8:15 a.m. If your child is late, an adult must come into the school and sign him or her in. Without a written note, a child can only be released to a parent or by someone who is listed on the pick-up sheet. If you are going to pick up your child early, go to the office and someone will call your child to the office to be picked up. Please try to avoid coming in late and leaving early. Teacher workdays are excellent days to schedule doctor and dentist appointments.

3. Classroom Needs 4 -spiral bond wide ruled note books or marbled composition books 2 - 24 count yellow pencils (send more after the New Year) 2-packs of wide line note book paper pencil bag ( No boxes please) book bag (No wheels please) 4 glue sticks 2 bottles of white liquid glue crayons ( 16/24 count) tissues small treats (stickers, toys, candy plastic Ziploc bags (gallon size, quart size, snack size) hand sanitizer erasers sponges paper plates Clorox wipes

4. Money • Please send all money in an envelope with your child’s name and what the money is for. • This insures that the money will go to the right place. • If the money is lunch money please put the child’s lunch number on the envelope and on the check, if writing a check for lunch. • The school will not accept checks for $5.00 or less. • Money for field trips cannot be checks, cash only please. • Book orders must be checks or money orders made out to the book company.

5. Medications All medications must come through the office by a parent or legal guardian. There is paperwork that has to be filled-out by a medical doctor before we can accept the medicine. Students are not allowed to bring medicines on the bus. Please do not send any creams or cough drops, unless they are prescribed by a doctor and have been cleared by the office.

6. Reading Students must read 15 minutes every night. Write the title of the story in the Student Planner. We will start accelerated reading very soon. Student’s goals will be set individually. Goals will be set by teacher. The students must have an average of 85% correct or higher each nine weeks to make their A.R. goals. The number of books a student needs to read increases every nine weeks.

7. Homework Students are expected to do their homework every night. Homework is an extension of class work. Students will have spelling( spelling words will be sent home on Monday in your child’s Homework Folder), math, and reading every night. Mind Bender will be due on Friday. Do not remove Behavior Sheet or Homework sheet.

8. Behavior Each teacher is required to have a discipline (behavior) policy. Your child’s folder will be marked daily for behavior. Please initial the folder every night. Behavior Chart and Consequences Green – I did great today! Yellow – Warning Orange – Time Out or loss of special privilege Red – Time Out, phone call, or note to parents Blue – Office referral

9. Grading policy • At the end of every nine weeks, the students will be given a math assessment. • The nine weeks assessment, classroom work, and classroom observation will be used to determine if your child is on grade level. • The reading grade is determined by the K-2 assessment, classroom observations, and classroom work. • By the first report card, students should be reading and retelling on a level 5/6. By mid-year (January), students should be reading on a level 9/10. At the end of the year students must be reading on a level 15/16. • In writing, a student should be able to do the following things by the end of the year. • Use phonics knowledge and basic patterns to spell correctly three and four letter words. • Use temporary and conventional spelling. • Spell and read many high frequency words. • Use basic punctuation and basic capitalization. • Compose a variety of products. • We will assess the student’s progress in these areas and assign an appropriate grade. • For word study/ spelling the students will have a spelling test on Friday. The students will do phonics activities daily. The spelling test grades, phonics activities and classroom work are used to determine a grade in the word study space on the report card. • At the end of the first and third nine weeks, all teachers will be having parent-teacher conferences. If your child has a P.E.P. we will conference every nine weeks.

10. Buses All bus changes must be written or faxed. Please include the address where your child will be dropped off at and the bus number that they will be riding that day. No changes will be made over the phone.

11. Thank you! We know this is a huge amount of information to be thrown at you. Please ask if you have any questions. Thank you for your help and let’s have a great year!