Welcome to 4 th grade Orientation!!

Welcome to 4th grade Orientation!! September 9th, 2014 AWE

Meet the Team E-mail Address and Teacher Web Page Tiffany.pugh@craven.k12.nc.us Leah.hill@craven.k12.nc.us Jody.orlowski@craven.k12.nc.us Please put parent in the subject line www.craven.k12.nc.us/ awe/aweindex.html Mrs. Pugh Mrs. Hill Ms. O

Attendance • School is from 8:00- 3:00. If your child arrives after 8:05, they are considered tardy and need to check in at the office. • Due to safety issues, there will be no early checkout after 2:30. See Parent Handbook for details. • All absences are unexcused until a note is received from a parent or guardian.

Parent Involvement • We welcome parent visits to our classroom; however, all visitors MUST sign in using the computer system in front of the office prior to coming to the classroom. Also parents must be cleared through Craven County. Go to the Craven County website craven.k12.nc.us and click Volunteers. • Parent volunteers are needed for extended team planning, chaperoning field trips, planning events, and other classroom needs. *Check our website for details.

Behavior Plan Classroom Rules: *Follow directions the first time given *Respect other’s space, property, and ideas *Raise your hand and be patient *Stay seated and work quietly *Complete all assignments *Be polite and respectful

AWE consequences If a student chooses to break a rule: 1) Verbal Warning- Repeat and Redirect 2) Sign the Log- Logical Consequence- Time out in classroom 3) Bounce- Time-out in Buddy Class with a task. Note or Phone call home. 4) Office Referral: Complete the task and Phone call home The Following infractions are referred straight to the office: • Physical Harm to Self and/or others. • Blatant disrespect A discipline log will be kept to document behavior. **Office referrals can lead to missing field trips.

Emergency Procedures • Fire Drills (Once a month) • Tornado Drills • Code 300- In the event of a real emergency, please be patient and follow all staff instructions.

AWE Core Values Be Responsible Be Respectful Be Safe Be Your Best

Weekly Communication Folder • Will be sent home every week on Thursday with the previous week’s work. • We will be tracking progress with assessments. • Please sign the weekly folder paper and return it the next day

Homework • Weekly homework will consist of 30-45 minutes per night, normally Monday – Thursday. • Your child is also expected to read each night for a minimum of 30 minutes, including weekends. • Record the book title and sign in the agenda daily. • Students who do not bring in homework will be assigned a “working lunch” so the assignments can be completed.

Bear Club Criteria *All homework complete on time, all class work complete on time, and the weekly sheet needs to be signed daily by parents. * Follows classroom behavior plan daily. *Awards will be given at the end of each 9-week session.

Conferences • Many issues can be resolved through email or telephone conversations. However, if a conference is needed we will make every effort to schedule it at a convenient time for everyone involved.

Field Trips Due to the lack of teacher assistants and the new times that the buses need to be back to school, we will be having most of our field trips in the school, other than the Craven County trips, which are the water safety and symphony. We will keep you informed about our upcoming trips and dates, when we get them finalized. If you would like to volunteer for the field trips or in our classroom please complete the volunteer form on the Craven County Schools website. All volunteers must be approved by the county.

Title One • Free/Reduced Lunch Forms –Our Title 1 allocation is based on the percentage of free/reduced participants. Our whole school benefits from this funding. • Sign-In Sheets – Please sign-in on the paper sign-in. Compact for Learning - Display and discuss • Compact for Learning • Parent Academy Survey – A survey was sent home in their packet. The survey helps to plan our parent trainings for this school year. Please return the survey to school if you haven’t already done so. • Parent Resource Center – The Resource Center is located in room 903. There are parenting materials and educational games to assist with academics at home. Our webpage has a link to the Parent Resource Center Coordinator. If you are interested in checking out materials or games, email or visit the center any day before or after school.

Our Curriculum • We will be teaching Common Core Standards as well as North Carolina Essential Standards for Science and Social Studies. • http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/ • We use the Writer’s Workshop model and Guided Reading model • We teach in whole group, small groups and one on one settings

1 to 1 Classroom • Each child will be assigned a netbook which will allow the students to increase their technology skills as they learn 4th grade curriculum objectives. • The students will be able to use these during the day at school for published writing tasks, taking notes and integrative multimedia projects. • Internet activity is monitored by the school system and inappropriate use of the Internet will result in suspension of computer privileges.

Math • We will study data, geometry, decimals, fractions, multiplication, division, place value, order of operations, properties and lots of problem solving. • Please make sure your child is able to recall basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. We will continue to practice facts using Math Facts in a Flash and other online resources linked to the school webpage. • There will be a weekly Spiral math Test. Each week, the students will get Spiral math homework for Monday through Thursday. We will go over the homework so that your child will have enough time to ask questions and practice the problems before the weekly test.

Reading • Your child should read for pleasure for 30 minutes each night. This nightly reading should be recorded in your child’s Reading Response Journal. • Your child will also read independently for 30 minutes in class. It is important for your child to read in order to build endurance for reading longer selections. • Your child should have a book at all times. We will visit the library as a class once a week. • We will also teach reading skills through mini lessons and guided reading groups..

Science and Social Studies • The concepts for both of these subjects will be integrated through Reading and Writing. • The units we will cover in Science include: Animals, Rocks and Minerals, Energy and Nutrition. We also have the wonderful STEM lab the first 9 weeks of school which covers a variety of concepts that were sent home in the student’s weekly folders • The units we will cover in Social Studies include the three regions of NC, government, economics and the history and symbols associated with our state.

Dismissal • 3:00 pm - Dismissal for car riders, day care van riders and AWE after-school care. Parents need to display the car rider sign provided. • 3:00 pm –Dismissal for walkers and bike riders. • If there is a change in the way your child goes home, please send a note in your child’s folder or call the school office with that information.

Testing • Fourth grade students are required to take the End of Grade (EOG) test in Reading and Math. • We will be having practice EOGs every 12 weeks ( County Benchmark Assessments) • Your child will also be assessed using the Mclass reading program. • Daze (3 minutes, vocabulary in context) • DORF ( fluency with three passage for 1 minute each) • TRC ( Oral and Written Comprehension)

Thank you for coming!!! • Thank you in advance for all your support this year! We are certain that we are going to have an “AWE-some” school-year!

Welcome to 4 th grade Orientation!!