First Grade General Information for Farine Falcons

1. Welcome to First Grade 1st Grade GT Mono Language 2015-2016 #farinefirsties

2. General Information We encourage our Farine Falcons to demonstrate excellent citizenship. We share good news and affirmations school wide Important school information is communicated in various ways: Monthly calendar, Twitter, Farine Website, Notes sent home, and School Messenger Make sure our front office has your most up-to -date phone number to be able to contact you in a case of emergencies, and in order to receive School Messenger recordings Please use crosswalks and observe safety when walking or driving at Farine

3. Please have students here in time to get breakfast and be in the classroom before tardy bell rings at 7:45. Dismissal is at 2:45. Please let teachers know prior to the end of the day if the method of leaving will change.

4. Attendance Policy • Students are expected to be present and on time every day • If your child does need to miss a day of school please call the school and share the reason for the absence • Please submit documentation of the reason • of the absence upon your child’s return to • school • If your child is at home with a fever, the fever must be gone for 24 hours before they can return to school • Attendance Success Initiative (ASI) team from the district will be working with any students with attendance issues.

5. Attendance Incentives • Individual Students who have perfect attendance for the six weeks will receive a certificate and a special prize (pencil, free dress pass, bracelet, etc.) • A class will receive a star each day the class has perfect attendance. Classes may work toward the following goals: • 20 Stars – Snack Party, Story Time with admin/librarian or Helium Balloons • 30 Stars – Ice Cream Party, Extra Recess or Extra “fun” time (like arts & crafts or another desired activity) • 40 Stars – Pizza Party, Class Picnic or Face Painting

6. Homework will be sent home on Friday with the words that will be on the spelling test that next week. It is due the Friday of the spelling test! (Friday to Friday!) When completing the homework, use the 10 spelling test words. There will be 5 English words and 5 High Frequency words. Firsties must also be reading EVERY DAY, documenting those readings and the responses in the reading log nightly. Firsties need to make such a BIG jump in their reading ability and it is crucial that they are practicing word work and writing skills as well as comprehension skills during and after reading!

7. Firsties will be learning… • Good citizenship • Roles of authority figures • Historical figures • Customs and Traditions • Landforms & Bodies of water • in Social Studies • Make connections with text evidence • Sensory language • Literary Text/Poetry • Fiction • Literary Nonfiction • Research • Editing/Revising Writings • In Language Arts • Number Identification • Composing/ • Decomposing • Addition & Subtraction • Time • Fractions • Story Problem Solving • in Math • Properties of Matter • … • … • Living/ • Nonliving • Plants • Animals • In Science

8. Our conference time is 9 -9:30 everyday. Email us anytime and we will get back with you as soon as possible. mmeeks@irvingisd.net twalsh@irvingisd.net clashier@irvingisd.net

9. Be sure to visit the table in the front hall by the Parent Center to sign up for this communication tool Follow us on twitter @Meeksclass Check out our Living Tree and Teacher webpage

10. Behavior Management Outstanding Day! Super Day! Ready to Learn Warning Lose 5 minutes of recess Hard Day – lose all recess and teacher will contant parent

11. At Farine, we SOAR! We follow our PBIS Guidelines for Success as a Behavior Plan campus wide Safety On-Task Academic Achievers Respect Soar tickets are given to students that are following these expectations. Each time your child receives a SOAR ticket, you will be getting a positive phone call to help us celebrate with your student. If your child’s ticket from the 200 board is one of the 10 in a row, he/she will be recognized over the announcements and will receive a free dress pass. If their ticket is chosen as the GRAND PRIZE WINNER they get to choosea prize from the treaseure box AND you will get a call from Mr. Gomez, our Assistant Principal! 

12. Students will go to PE, Music, and Art every week.

13. Report Cards will be sent home every 6 weeks. We will contact you if we are worried about progress. • We will also be doing assessments each 6 weeks testing: • letters and sounds • phonemic awareness • number identification • ability to write numbers • counting by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s and 10’s to 120 • Reading a clock to the hour and half hour • Money identification and value • We will send these reports home with the report cards.

14. Birthdays The district will not allow us to stop instruction time to celebrate birthday celebrations. We are not allowed to send any food items home with students. So please do not send cupcakes, cookies or any food that is either home made or store bought. You MAY send small bags with little trinket toys or closed candy.

15. Lunch • We are glad that you can join your child for lunch! • Check in with the office through Raptor (you must have your photo ID to receive a visitor's badge) • Your badge allows you access to the Cafeteria only (you may request to visit the library as well when you are printing your badge) • You may not share food with other students; you may not eat food off of your child’s school lunch • You may not take pictures of other students • First Grade families can come eat with students on THURSDAY!

16. Don’t Forget… • PTO is selling shirts in the cafeteria • Get a library card in the library to check out books • Stop by room 121 to sign up to help as a volunteer for our Farine family  • Sign up for a parent conference!