Back to School Night September 3, 2014

1. The s of First Grade Back to School Night September 3, 2014

2. Attendance • Unless your child is ill, please make every attempt to have your child present at school and on time. • Our day begins at 8:40 and dismissal time is at 3:25. Students that arrive late are missing valuable instruction. • If your child is absent please call the attendance hotline by 9am at 484-524-0099 and press option 2 for Ringing Rocks. A written note on the first day that your child returns to school is still required. If your child is out of school for more than 3 days, please provide a doctors note.

3. Every student is expected to follow the Falcon 5: • Be Safe • Be Respectful • Be Caring • Be Here, Be Ready • Celebrate Success • Students that choose to follow the rules will move up the clip chart and earn rewards. Likewise, there will be consequences for students the choose to break the rules (moving down the clip chart, parent contact, time outs, etc.) Behavior

4. Reading and Language Arts • Fundations • Everyday Math • Science • Social Studies Curriculum

5. • In 1st grade, we will focus on developing phonemic awareness, decoding skills, word recognition, comprehension and oral reading fluency. • The more sight words a student knows, the more fluently he/she will read. • Practice reading the sight words nightly. • Read to Self • Read to Someone • Listen to Reading • Word Work • Work on Writing

6. A variety of grouping strategies will be utilized to deliver our reading and language arts curriculum. Whole class and small group lessons will be delivered to ensure mastery of skills. • We will focus on the following throughout the year: • Reading Strategies • Comprehension Skills • Reading Fluency • Vocabulary and Word Analysis • Spelling, Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics of Writing • Listening and Speaking

7. We do lots of writing in first grade. Children are encouraged to use phonetic spelling when they first start. Our goal is to encourage risk taking and independence in writing. Part of this process is to stress to children that phonetic spelling is acceptable, and to build their confidence in their ability to communicate in writing even if they can’t spell the word with “dictionary spelling.” However, as high frequency words and spelling rules are introduced children will gradually move toward more conventional spelling.

8. By the end of first grade, students ... • Understand and use the concept of “ones” and “tens” • Add and subtract numbers to 20 with ease • Tell time to the hour, half hour, and quarter hour • Count, write and order numbers to 100 • Count up and back starting at any number to 50 • Use graphs to answer simple questions and draw conclusions • Identify change-to-more, change-to-less, and parts-and-total situations • • Each day begins with mental math and reflexes which are the secure skills that will be tested that unit. • We will continue to work on concepts all year long. EDM is a spiral approach to mathematics.

9. Discipline is simple. We work hard as a class to make the classroom a positive and safe place for all. The children are encouraged to treat each others as they would like to be treated, listen to the teacher and each other, keep our hands to ourselves, be nice-use kind words, do your best work, help your friends and take care of the things in our classroom. Discipline

10. There will be 4 early release days this year. The dates of those days are: • September 24 • October 22 • January 28 • May 6 Early Release Days

11. Fundations focuses on the word study portion of reading and handwriting. In the beginning of every Fundations unit, a parent letter will be sent home explaining what the students will be working on. You will find this in your child’s yellow folder in their binder. Included with the parent letter will be activities that you and your child can complete at home. This work does not need to be returned to school. We will introduce spelling during the third Unit of Fundations. The spelling list will be sent home at the beginning of each week, also in their yellow folder. The spelling test will be on Fridays unless otherwise stated in the weekly newsletter. Fundations

12. Goals Each unit of study has learning goals. They will be stated on our board as …. I Can Statements. I can write a telling sentence using a period.

13. Homework will be assigned on Monday for the week. You can find the homework calendar in your child’s binder in the inside front pocket. Please be sure to review your child’s homework each night and sign the homework sheet daily. In addition to reading and math homework it is important that 1st graders read EACH night. This may include practicing their decodable readers, shared reading with an adult or older sibling, and reading and decoding good fit books on their own. Homework

14. Itinerary Oh, the places we will go and the things we will learn this year as we sail through 1st grade! To find out exactly where we are headed each week you will want to read our weekly newsletter. All weekly schedules, upcoming events and important information will be listed on our newsletter. Your weekly newsletter can be found in your child’s FISH binder in the front pocket.

15. Studies have shown that those children whose parents are actively involved in the reading process will become the best readers. • Reading to your child and listening to them read to you, taking them to the library and providing quality just right books at home is of the highest importance. Just Right Books

16. Be sure to check your child’s FISH binder every night for all school and class mail. • Be sure to read our class newsletter each week. • Watch for TADPOLES updates and emails! Keeping Informed

17. Lunch is from 12:25 – 12:55 each day. Lunch is $2.60 and comes with milk. The students are encouraged to memorize their student ID number. This will help the lunch line run smoothly. Lunch

18. Mystery Readers I would like to invite all parents, older siblings, grandparents, or other special people to surprise your child by being a “Mystery Reader” this year in our classroom. Mystery Readers will visit us on Friday afternoons at 2:40 for approximately 20 minutes. Remember this is top secret! Sign up calendar is on the back table!

19. Students are ALL encouraged to participate in the 100 book club. You will find a book log in your child’s red reading folder. Each book that your child reads should be logged on that paper. Once your child has read 10 books please turn in the log and your child will add a dot to their bird. In 1st grade 10 pages = a book if reading a chapter book. Books can be read by the child or to the child depending on their reading level or mood that night  Nightly Reading

20. Birthdays • Class Parties • Scholastic Book and Highlights Orders • 100 Book Club • Money (lunch/snack) Other Items:

21. Parent/Teacher conferences will be held on November 24th and 25th. During this conference, we will be discussing your child's academic performance, homework, behavior and any additional concerns you may have. • A sign up schedule will come home closer to the date. Parent-Teacher Conferences

22. Please feel free to contact me anytime you have questions. You can do this in a variety of ways: • Write a note • Send an email • Call me at school • Make an appointment for a conference Questions

23. Report cards will be distributed once each trimester. • November (at conferences) • March • June Report Cards

24. Student of the Week Each child will have a special time during the school year to be the “All About Me” person of the week. Your child will bring home a pennant on Monday of their week. Please return the completed pennant by Thursday of their week. Every child will have a turn! A list of assigned dates will be sent home shortly.

25. All tests will be announced in our weekly newsletter. Most spelling/skills tests will be on Fridays. All tests will be corrected and sent home to be reviewed in your child’s take home folder. Tests

26. It is so exciting to see what AMAZING readers our children blossom into in 1st grade! Our class has already begun to build our Reading Stamina!!! STAMINA is being able to do something for a long time without getting tired or giving up. We are trying to build up our STAMINA when we are practicing reading to our self. Up Up and Away!!!

27. • If you have time or talents to share with us, please complete and return the volunteer form. • Our school policy requires all visitors/volunteers to check in at the school office. Visitor Badges are required if you will be in the school hallways or entering a classroom. Also, anyone that wishes to help in the classroom is required to fill out our Pottsgrove Volunteer form. Information is available in the office. Visitors and Volunteers

28. EDM Online • Starfall.com • Tumblebooks.com Websites

29. In order to provide your children with the program I believe they deserve, I supplement the curriculum with extra projects. These projects are not funded by the regular education budget. Please take the time to look at my Giving Tree. I have posted apples on the tree in the classroom this evening. Any and all donations are truly appreciated! If any additional supplies are needed throughout the school year they will be noted in our class newsletter. EXtra Supplies

30. You…… You are your child’s first and most important teacher. I hope that we can work together this year to make your child’s 1st grade school year a huge success!

31. Please make sure your child gets plenty of sleep each night, so that he/she is well rested and ready for the challenges of first grade. It is recommended that 5 and 6 year olds get 10 to 11 hours of sleep a night. This year will ZOOM by, so let’s make the most of it. Zzzzz…

32. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Once again, thank you for coming this evening and for showing an interest in your child’s education. If you should have any questions or would like to speak with me further about your child, please contact me by email at ckochka@pgsd.org or call the school to schedule a time for us to meet.