Ms. Cooper s Handbook

Transcription

1 Ms. Cooper s Handbook First grade

2 Important information for you to know about our first grade.. ***I believe that there is a lot to be gained with a positive attitude and praise. Students will work harder when they are praised for their accomplishments. Please help reinforce this concept by praising your child for what they have accomplished, and helping them by giving of your time and encouraging words when you see something that is difficult for them to grasp. * **First graders work very hard at school. When they get home they need time to play and relax. However, they also need to do a little homework each night. I will send monthly Language Arts Calendars home, as well as, occasional math homework. In addition to this I ask that you read with your child for 15 minutes or more each evening. When the Language Arts Calendar is signed and returned the student will be rewarded with a sticker on their chart. They will receive a sticker for each math homework sheet returned as well. When they receive ten stickers they will be able to choose a prize from our prize box. We may have additional homework, as needed, so check your child s folder every night and return the assigned work by the next day (unless otherwise indicated). ***Your child s home folder is a very important tool for communication between school and home. Please take the time to look over the contents of the folder every night. Please

3 encourage your child to bring their home folder and backpack to and from school every day! ***It is a distraction to the learning environment for students to have gum, candy, trading cards or toys in the classroom. Please be sure your child knows not to bring any of these items to school. ***ALL MONEY BROUGHT TO SCHOOL SHOULD BE IN A MARKED ENEVELOPE! Please make checks payable to Scholastic Book Company for all book orders. Scholastic Books can also be ordered online. (More information will come home regarding Scholastic orders.) Make checks payable to White Swan School for other projects/functions. ***Please put your child s name on all items brought to school i.e. boots, snow pants, gym shoes, lunch boxes, coats, etc. Many students have the exact same items and without names there is no way to tell who they belong to. ***BIRTHDAYS Birthdays are very important events. If you would like to bring in a treat please have it to the office by noon. This will enable us to be aware of and find time for the treat in the afternoon. If you have any questions please feel free to talk to me. The best kinds of treats are the little cupcakes, mini-muffins or some type of quick snack. The larger cupcakes are often wasted as many students cannot each such a large cake in the allotted time.

4 ***LIBRARY I will send a note home when I know what the schedule is for Library. Please have all books returned to the classroom the day before library. This is a big responsibility for first graders to return their books each and every week, but one I know that they are capable of. ***Make-up work: When your child is absent for a day or two, I will help him/her to catch-up when they return to school. Many of the things that we do in our classroom will be done in groups using charts, manipulatives and activities. These are impossible to send home. Whenever possible I will send worksheets home to help practice the missed concepts. ***Spelling We will have a spelling test every Friday (Starting in a few weeks). If the week is shortened we will have the test on the last day of the week. Please practice with your child every night so that they may be successful on the test each week. ***Reading First grade is a very important year for developing readers. You will see many changes in their reading abilities throughout the year. Please make sure to read with your students every night! Exposure to varied reading materials and continuous practice will help your child to achieve success. It is also vital that you ask your child about what they read. Ask them to tell you what they just read, ask them about the characters, setting and plot of the story. When in doubt about what to ask your child try to use who, what, where, when and why questions

5 to prompt further conversation. I like to ask questions that the students have to prove by going back in the story and showing how they found the answer. We will be practicing this a lot this year. ***Writing - Students will be practicing their writing in various forms in first grade. We will be working on answering questions with complete thoughts, sentence structure, extended responses and various other writing activities. Spelling is developmental during this stage and will not always be correct. Sometimes it is more important that the child express themselves in their writing then to be worried about the correct spelling. We will be working on editing our papers for spelling, run-on sentences and punctuation when we are writing for specific projects. ***Science and Social Studies We do many things to learn the concepts of the sciences at school. Students will be completing experiments, as well as, projects to solidify their understanding of the presented materials. The best way to help your child would be to read the weekly newsletter and ask questions about what they are learning. ***Math This year we are beginning a new math program called Investigations. It is a great hands-on program that will enable the students time to discover answers and concepts by using manipulatives. I always put a short note about what we learned during the week in my newsletter. Make sure to ask your child

6 about what they are learning. We will be concentrating on learning the basic subtraction and addition facts. We will be completing this in a variety of ways. Students will be challenged to not only know what the answer is but will also be asked to explain how they know the answer to be true. Common Core Standards challenge each student to think about thinking. Some of the other concepts that we will be learning will be estimating, number lines, graphs, fractions and telling time to the hour and half-hour. ***Behavioral Policy Our classroom rules are based on the Three B s. They are Be Respectful, Be Responsible and Be Safe. We will discuss and model these rules at the beginning of the year and students will be expected to follow the rules in all school settings. I use a behavior chart as a visual reminder for students to maintain good behavior. The students will all begin on the same level at the start of each day; this starting point will be called ground level. As the day progresses the students will be rewarded for positive behavior by being asked to move their cards higher into the sky. The ultimate goal would be to sit in the clouds. Students will be recognized for good behavior by verbal praise and the awarding of Bee Bucks. We will have random drawings for prizes from the prize box using these Bee Bucks.

7 Behavior Charts will only be sent home upon parent request or if there are continual behavioral issues. I am looking forward to working together to achieve a successful and memorable year for all! Thank you. Ms. Cooper

8 Please sign and return this paper as soon as possible! Please keep the information for future reference. Please go over/discuss this information with your child. Keep this information and refer to it throughout the school year. Please sign below if you have discussed the rules/information in the handbook with your child. Parent signature We can always use volunteers! If you would like to help our class with your time please fill in the following information. NAME: PHONE: come to school and tutor students share a special talent/hobby that I have with the class donate supplies We always need more pencils and Kleenex! Any other ideas that you may have to help our class