WELCOME TO FIRST GRADE!

2008/2009-"Bee" Smart..."Bee" Green

 

The ABC’s of First Grade:

A fantastic year of fun and learning is ahead for your 1^st grader.

Birthday Treats are always welcome but please keep them simple. We would like wrapped treats to go home.   (No ice cream, cakes, candles, or drinks.)

Book Orders will be available each month.  I will send home brochures monthly for you to choose from.  This is an affordable way for you to add to your child’s home library and give him or her an opportunity to practice newly acquired reading skills.  The class also earns points toward free books and tapes for the classroom for every dollar you spend.  If you are interested in ordering please send the order slip with a check or cash in an envelope marked with your child’s name. One check to Scholastic covers all of the Book Clubs.  You can also order online with a credit card. See Online Book Orders page on this site for link.

Call or e-mail with any questions, concerns, or compliments. School phone is 630-771-2420 and my e-mail is zidernl@vvsd.org

Daily reading logs are to be completed S, M, T, W, TH and turned in monthly.

Every child is accepted.  We believe in an inclusive caring community of learners.

Folders:  Your child’s B.E.E. Keeper binder is to be taken home daily and returned to school the next day.  In it there will be notes, graded work, homework and anything else that needs to come home.  Please empty this folder nightly.  The right binder pocket holds things to come right back to school.  The left front binder pocket holds things to be left at home. Your child’s plastic pouch will contain his/her BRAG Book.  This will also come home nightly with a leveled book in it. (The reading log is in the front of the pouch.)  This BRAG Book needs to come back to school daily.

Grading- the district has adopted a new standards based report card that will not include letter grades.

Gym shoes must be worn to school on gym days.  Children without gym shoes will have to sit and watch during gym time.

Handwriting:  Please help your child practice writing his or her first and last name using ONE capital and the rest lower case letters for each name.  Please praise neat and careful handwriting when you see it in your child’s work.  Practice makes perfect as little hands develop fine motor control.  Please refer to the Fabulous Five checklist given tonight so you can work with your child on proper letter formation, size, spacing, baseline use, and neatness.

Homework:  Each week a homework packet will come home on Monday to be completed and turned in on Friday.  There will be a math sheet and a language sheet.  Each sheet will have 4 or 5 things to do Monday through Thursday.  Also anything that is not completed in school should be considered homework when it comes home. Be sure to have a special place for your child to complete homework.  He or she should have pencils, scissors, crayons, and writing paper to use at home.  Your help and supervision is needed for your child to learn while doing the homework.  Remember that the most important homework that your first grader can do is reading nightly for 15-20 minutes.   You may either read to your child or have your child read to you or a combination of both.  Remember just because your child learns to read does not mean that he or she does not want to be read to anymore.  All children enjoy having their parents read to them no matter what their age.

Invitations for birthday parties will only be passed out at school if the whole class is invited.  Please do not put your child or me on the spot by trying to pass invitations out to certain classmates at school.  Think of how the uninvited children feel.  I will not put my students in this position and appreciate your cooperation.  I am also not authorized to give out addresses or phone numbers for my students.  A listing of the names of the students in this class is included and should be helpful to you in locating addresses or numbers in the phone book or school directory.

Join your child in nightly reading and homework please.

Keep a homework routine going this year.  The good habits you start will pay off in the future.

Lunch Account: Your child has a lunch account and debit card to use to purchase lunch at school.  It is easier for me if you send money in for the week instead of every day.  It cuts down on daily bookkeeping each morning.  As with all money please put it in an envelope labeled with your child’s name, amount of the money, and its purpose.

Math:  Please work on memorizing addition and subtraction facts at home.  A few minutes with flashcards nightly goes a long way in meeting this goal.  We will take a weekly Mad Minute quiz which I make into a game (no pressure).  The children graph their progress and try to improve a little each week. 

Money:  Anytime you need to send money to school please put it in an envelope marked with your child’s name and what the money is for.  It also helps to put how much money is included inside.  If you are sending in money for various items please put each amount in a separate envelope.

Newsletter:  A classroom newsletter will come home weekly on Monday or Tuesday of each week.  It will tell you the theme of the week, reading and math skills covered, and any special events or information that you need to know.  Please make it a point to read the newsletter weekly so that you are sure about what is going on this year.

Notes:  Please be sure to remind your child when there is a note to give to me.  They do not always remember to empty their zipper pouch even though they are reminded daily to do so.  At first we check the Parent Communication section daily but later on I expect your child to show me if you write a note.  I must have a note when there is a change in your child’s daily dismissal routine.  This goes for parent pick-up by car in case of rain.  I do not have the authority to change the normal dismissal procedure without a note from you.

Organization is maintained by daily use of the B.E.E. Keeper binder.

Plan to join us for theme days, field trips, Book Cook Fridays, or Story Treasure Tuesdays, or Mystery Mondays.  We love parent and family volunteers!

Quality work is always expected so you child can be the best he/she can be!

Reading:  Each week we will work on a new story from our reading series.  The book will come home nightly for daily practice.  It is important for the children to reread stories often to build fluency.  Please be sure your child brings the book back every day since we use it every day.  This will help build your child’s sight vocabulary this year.  Please do not read ahead with your child.

Report cards are given at the end of each quarter.    Science/Social Studies/Health results are given at the end of each semester (twice a year).

Show and Tell-Children are welcome to bring in items that correlate to our units of study at any time.   Please talk to your child about what might be interesting to say about the item.  A sharing bag may also come home during the year.  Please do not send valuable or breakable items to school with your child.

Spelling words are given every Monday.  The children will be tested every Friday (Thursday if there is a long weekend).  More importantly I expect the spelling words and wall words to be spelled correctly in future writing.

Talk to your child about school. Use our class web pages and class take-home books to get a conversation going.

Using state standards and benchmarks we will be evaluating your child on his/her progress as an individual learner this year.  Rubrics, informal assessments, tests, and observations will be used to gather data.

Vacations:  Please try to plan vacations during the scheduled school breaks as vacation days are unexcused absences in the state of Illinois.  Papers will be saved for your child to complete upon his or her return.  If a trip must be taken, a daily journal of the trip must be written by your child and brought to school upon his or her return.  It is your responsibility to see that missed work is made up.  Work will not be sent home ahead of time.

Web sites…we have two class web sites that you can visit for glimpses into our classroom activities and field trips during the year. You must give permission for your child’s work or pictures to be posted online.  This form will come home soon.  Last names are never used for safety reasons.  Our sites also include learning links to game and sites that can extend learning beyond our classroom walls.  I am very proud of these two sites.  Check them out when you can.

Writing is done daily in first grade.  The children do journal writing, class books, a publishing center, traveling journals, post office, and card shop.  Please encourage writing at home as much as possible.  Do not spell words for your child.  Encourage him/her to stretch the word and write down sounds he/she hears.  This helps build fluency in writing so that his/her thoughts get on the page in a more meaningful way.   The children are taught to edit later in the writing process.

“X” tra activities and web sites to enhance learning are listed on our web page.

You are always welcome to visit our classroom.  We need to work as a team for your child to succeed this year.

Zero in on your child’s positive traits and praise him or her when possible.  Remember that routine and structure helps your first grader succeed.  By working together we can make this year a wonderful learning experience for your child.