Back-To-School Night

1. Back-To-School Night Mrs. Whitney Zeppetelli 1st Grade

2. Introduction • Good evening and thank you for coming to Back-to-School Night • I am so excited to be your child’s 1st grade teacher this year! • Information reviewed tonight is also in your handouts and on my Online Classroom, accessed through the new Lincoln Park website.

3. What Your Child Will Learn in 1st Grade By the end of first grade your child is expected to master the following curriculum criteria. • Reading: • Mastery of short and long vowels, consonants, blends and diagraphs • Ability to blend sound. • Ability to read and comprehend a short story. • Ability to use expression in oral reading and observation of punctuation marks. • Language Arts: • Ability to write a paragraph consisting of 5 sentences which includes a topic, three supporting details, and closing sentence. • Ability to write a telling and asking sentence with proper punctuation. • Ability to use capitalization rules (proper nouns and beginning of sentences) • Recognition of a noun, verb, adjectives, and pronouns. • Ability to use comparatives (-er and –est) and suffixes (s, es, ed, and ing). • Proper letter formation, use of spacing between words, and use of lines. • Ability to answer open-ended questions using complete sentence format.

4. Math Expectations • Basic addition and subtraction facts through 20. • Recognizing numbers to 100 (odd and even). • Recognize coins and values through $.25. • Add coins and make change for combinations up to $1.00 • Time: hour and half-hour. • Recognition of basic and geometric shapes (including pattern black shapes and 3D shapes). • Oral and written counts by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, 10’s to 900. • Ability to apply a given rule to math problems (“Frames and Arrows” and “What’s My Rule”). • Solve simple addition and subtraction word problems. • Ability to find the difference between numbers. • Place value – digit numbers: ones, Tens, Hundreds. • Ability to measure to the nearest inch and centimeter.

5. Science Expectations • Health awareness including healthy eating habits and dental and personal hygiene. • Awareness of animal habitats and environmental issues. • Awareness of general safety rules and respect for living creatures. • Awareness of daily weather/temperature changes and units of measure. • Awareness of animal needs: food, water, air, and space. • Awareness of life cycles of living things. • Social Studies Expectations • General knowledge of personal information (address, phone #, and birthday). • General knowledge of directional words (over, under, behind, below, North, South, East, West, etc.) • General knowledge of community including but not limited to: citizens, jobs, goods and services, wants and needs, roles of people everyday, leaders, etc. • Ability to read a map and identify landforms using a map key. • Comprehension of general holidays. • General knowledge of the globe: Earth, ocean, continents, countries, states, towns, suburbs, cities, landforms and natural resources. • Knowledge about the past, present, and future. • Knowledge about our government and leaders.

6. Behavior Plan Here is how it works: • Everyday students begin on the green light. The green light means great behavior and is worth 2 points. • If a student breaks a rule and/or is not behaving appropriately, he/she will be given a verbal warning the first time. • If the questionable behavior continues after the warning, the student will be asked to move their “person” to the yellow light. The yellow light is worth 1 point for the day. • If a student chooses to continue acting inappropriately, he/she will move to the red light. The red light indicates that behavior was a major issue for the student that day. The student will be asked to write a reflection of his/her behavior and what they could have done differently. That reflection will be sent home for you to discuss, sign, and return the next day. Being on the red light frequently may also cause the student to miss out on fun activities such as games, free time, upcoming events, etc. They will earn 0 points for that day.

7. Classroom Job Assignments • In order for our classroom to run smoothly, we all have to pitch in and help. • The students will take turns doing classroom jobs. • When the child is assigned to a particular job, they will be responsible for that job for the entire week.

8. Classroom Responsibility A few ways the children will practice responsibility in our classroom are: • Completing their assigned classroom job. • Remembering their library books and gym sneakers on the proper days. • Taking home, completing and returning homework and student planner daily. • Remembering to bring snack and lunch everyday. Practice at home as well by giving your child small jobs and/or tasks to complete independently.

9. Folders We will be using the following folders to help keep track of your child’s work: • Test Folder: This folder will go home biweekly. It will contain classroom assignments and tests. Please review the work in this folder with your child, sign and return the folder. You may keep all work at home, but please look for the sign and return stamp on top of ALL tests. They MUST be returned in the folder. • Homework Folder: The homework folder is just that! It will contain your child’s daily homework. This folder will also contain important notices that might be sent out from the school or the community. Please take those notices out of the folder nightly and return the completed homework and/or notes that I need to see.

10. Homework • Homework Assignments should take 25-35 minutes nightly. • Nightly homework assignments may include: • Spelling • Blending • Math • Decodable Book

11. Homework Policy • Miss one homework assignment • Warning • Must complete the assignment. • Miss a second assignment • Fill out a missing homework form • Parents must sign and return it • Must complete the homework assignment during their own time Missing homework DOES affect the students’ class work grade.

12. Special Schedule We have “specials” Tuesday – Friday from 1:17 – 1:57. On Mondays our “special” is from 2:41 – 3:21. • Monday: We rotate specials. I would recommend always wearing sneakers on Mondays & Wednesdays so the students don’t have to keep track and are always prepared for gym, but that is up to you. • Tuesday: Music • Wednesday: Gym • Thursday: Computers • Friday: Art

13. Special Requirements • Students need to remember: • Wear or bring sneakers on Wednesdays. I also recommend wearing sneakers on Mondays so you don’t have to keep up with the rotating special schedule. • Bring a smock in for art. • Return borrowed library books

14. Student of The Week Student of the Week:Every few weeks on Friday a student’s name is drawn randomly to learn more about them. • That student is asked to: • Complete a poster using any materials they want • The student will bring in the completed assignment sheet and poster following Friday. • The next week that student will present his/her poster to the class and help us to learn more about them.

15. Miscellaneous Info • Lunch: 11: 11 – 11:57 • Snack Time: 2:00 • Birthday Celebrations • If you would like to send in a special snack for your child’s birthday, please contact me in advanced. If your child has any allergies and/or special dietary needs, you may send in a treat that they can have during the birthday celebrations. If there are any allergy concerns, please let me and the nurse know ASAP! • Also, as a policy, I will only allow a child to handout party invitations in class IF every child from the class is included. Otherwise, I ask that you refrain from sending party invitations to school.

16. Questions & Contact Info • I like to maintain an open line of communication with parents at all times. When parents and teachers work together, the students will recognize that we are all on the same “team” and that their success is very important to us. • You can contact me any time by: • Calling 973-696-5530 • Emailing me at zeppetelli@lincpk.com • I look forward to a great school year!