Where am I?
Handbook
A Day in the Life of a First Grader...
ARRIVAL TO SCHOOL
Students may begin arriving to school at 8:25 a.m.. Upon arrival, children should come directly to our classroom. If one of us is not in the room, the children should wait in the hall outside our classroom door. School begins at 8:40 a.m., when the tardy bell rings.
INVITATIONS
Each morning the students come in, put their backpacks away, turn in any papers to their teacher, make their lunch choice, then choose an Invitation. Invitations are learning activities centered around the content we are studying and the variety of learning styles of the children. It is also a social time of the day that gives both the children and teacher a chance have casual conversations and start the day on a positive note!
MORNING MEETING
We begin our day together by looking over the schedule, checking the calendar and sharing with each other. Each student has the opportunity to share aloud briefly. We love this time of day because we learn so much about each other.
MATH
As with reading and writing, the children will learn that math is a part of daily life. Our district math curriculum and our knowledge of your child guide the decisions we make about how to best help your child develop math understanding. Our focus will be on posing problems with authentic contexts that foster the work of mathematicians: problem-solving, reasoning, categorizing, critical thinking, communication, representation, measuring, probability and statistics, geometry, and computation activities. Children will be encouraged to share the various strategies that they use to solve a problem. Although basic computational skills are still considered to be very important, an increased amount of time will be spent on mental math, reasonability and efficiency, as these skills are more often used in real-life situations than paper and pencil computations. You will notice that number sentences will be written in a horizontal form (2+3=5). Research has shown that this encourages a natural progression toward understanding place value. We would appreciate your support in presenting problems in this manner.
READING WORKSHOP
There will be many opportunities for your child to read throughout the day. We will have formal instruction in large group and small groups, as well as time for independent reading each day. Students will be expected to read at home each night. Your child will bring home a book to read each night. Please help your child with his/her chosen book. This book will be at your child’s reading level and will be “just right” for him/her. Other reading can consist of: telling a story through the illustrations, listening to a story, taking turns reading with someone, tape recording a story, discussing a book that was read, etc. Our emphasis in reading will be on the enjoyment of reading, acquisition of skills, and comprehension of what is read. We will have book discussions to help us further comprehend and make connections among books, authors, real life and writing. We will also begin to use reading as a tool to investigate information.
LUNCH
Each child will have a lunch account in which parents can deposit a lump sum. Lunch money should be sent in the provided sealed envelope with your child’s name, grade and room number on it. The children will need to turn money in for lunch accounts in the morning. Lunch costs $2.20 (includes milk), and milk alone is $.50. You may send more money, and it will be applied to your child’s account. The lunch room will send home a notice when the account is running low on funds.
For those who bring lunch from home, please be aware of sending healthy, stamina-building foods and refrain from soda (especially caffeinated) and junk food. Sharing with fellow students is not permitted.
WRITING WORKSHOP
Children will be given many opportunities to write throughout the day. They might write to explain their thinking in math, take notes in science or respond to their reading. We will also have a formal time which is called Writing Workshop when they become real authors. This begins with a mini-lesson during which a specific skill is taught. The children then have an opportunity to write, revise and confer with peers about the content of their writing. At the end of the workshop, small groups of students will be given an opportunity to share their writing and strategies that they tried. Skills will also be taught on an individual basis as children are ready to use them. We will take our writing through a writing cycle including: collecting ideas, picking an idea to focus on, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. We will also study different genres of writing throughout the year, such as poetry, non-fiction, and letter writing.
SPELLING
Spelling is a developmental process. Children will be encouraged to use invented spelling, especially for words that are above grade level but are in their speaking vocabulary. This encourages them to use more descriptive and exact words. Spelling instruction will focus on spelling patterns and using the letter sounds to spell unknown words. We will also focus on high frequency words, words that are used frequently in the students’ writing. These words will be added to our word wall and will become “no excuse words” for the entire class. This means that we expect the children to spell these words correctly in all of the writing that they do.
SPECIAL CLASSES
Specials are everyday for 50 minutes. Please see the ABCD Rotation Schedule to be sure your child wears tennis shoes on P.E. days.
Physical Education: Robin Ehrlich and Gail Velten
Music: Tracy St.Clair
Art: Vanessa Lang
We will schedule the computer lab and library story times to best fit our needs. The students will, however, continue to check out library books with the class biweekly. If your child finishes his/her books before the next scheduled library visit, please return the books to school. Your child may then visit the library to choose new books.
SNACK TIME
Since lunch is at 11:20, students are often hungry by the afternoon. We plan to have a snack after specials each day. Each child is responsible for bringing his/her own healthy snack. We know that unhealthy snacks are not conducive to a productive learning environment; therefore, we suggest sending low-sugar snacks. Some examples of healthy choices are: any kind of fruit or vegetable, string cheese, pretzels, goldfish crackers, granola bars or graham crackers. Keep in mind that we do NOT have utensils, plates or napkins. Individually wrapped items are easier. Please do not send drinks. We have a water fountain outside of our classroom.
BIRTHDAY TREATS
We love celebrating birthdays in first grade! Feel free to send in a birthday treat for your child to share with the class. You may send the treat in the morning, then we will sing and celebrate during snack time. Please send only store-bought goods. Individual size treats (like cupcakes or cookies) are probably your best bet. PLEASE DO NOT SEND COOKIE CAKES! Things that need to be cut with a knife are a problem. Thanks, in advance, for your consideration of this.
SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES
Some of our inquiries will stem from the science curriculum: Plants, Animals, Force and Motion, States of Matter and Weather. Other inquiries will stem from the social studies curriculum: Civics, Culture, History, Economics and Geography. Through our studies we will develop the science process skills: observing, describing and communicating, and the social studies tools of inquiry: acquiring, arranging and thinking about information, and making decisions.
GOING HOME
Walkers and car riders will be escorted to the North front doors to meet you. Bus riders are escorted to their buses in the back of the building by a teacher as each bus arrives. If there is any change in your child’s going home procedure, we MUST have a signed note. Legally, we must have this information before allowing any change of plans. This includes scouts, language class, clubs, friends going home together, parent change of plans, etc. If you have an emergency change in transportation, please call the office at 213-6120. Mrs. Wheeler will hand deliver a note to the teacher. Many times we have meetings during lunch and plan time and are unable to check email and voice mail until after school.
DISCIPLINE
Each class discusses and decides on its own list of classroom rules. Our goal is to create a safe learning environment to aid our students in making responsible choices. We will spend time talking about the Keysor Pride words: Kindness, Respect, Responsibility, and Honesty. We expect to see these words in action all year long! We believe that communication is important in maintaining a positive learning environment. Therefore, we will keep you informed about your child’s behavior. Each week your child will bring home a red folder with a behavior rubric for you to sign and return. Please refer to the Keysor Handbook for specific school-wide discipline policies.
FIRST GRADE NEWSLETTER
Many Mondays we will send a newsletter home in backpack mail relating the previous week’s happenings and upcoming events. Please read it thoroughly together as a family.
HOMEWORK
There are only 10 ways to become a better reader...read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, and read! Help your child become a better reader by setting up a consistent time and place for this important reading work to take place.
Your child is expected to read each night for homework - see the “READING” section for more information. Your child will be responsible for bringing back his/her book club book each day. We will also periodically send a math sheet home that correlates to what we are working on in class. This activity is optional and does not need to come back to school. Homework should be a fun time to practice skills we have been working on in class. The district expectation is that first graders will have approximately ten minutes of homework each night.
ARRIVAL TO SCHOOL
Students may begin arriving to school at 8:25 a.m.. Upon arrival, children should come directly to our classroom. If one of us is not in the room, the children should wait in the hall outside our classroom door. School begins at 8:40 a.m., when the tardy bell rings.
INVITATIONS
Each morning the students come in, put their backpacks away, turn in any papers to their teacher, make their lunch choice, then choose an Invitation. Invitations are learning activities centered around the content we are studying and the variety of learning styles of the children. It is also a social time of the day that gives both the children and teacher a chance have casual conversations and start the day on a positive note!
MORNING MEETING
We begin our day together by looking over the schedule, checking the calendar and sharing with each other. Each student has the opportunity to share aloud briefly. We love this time of day because we learn so much about each other.
MATH
As with reading and writing, the children will learn that math is a part of daily life. Our district math curriculum and our knowledge of your child guide the decisions we make about how to best help your child develop math understanding. Our focus will be on posing problems with authentic contexts that foster the work of mathematicians: problem-solving, reasoning, categorizing, critical thinking, communication, representation, measuring, probability and statistics, geometry, and computation activities. Children will be encouraged to share the various strategies that they use to solve a problem. Although basic computational skills are still considered to be very important, an increased amount of time will be spent on mental math, reasonability and efficiency, as these skills are more often used in real-life situations than paper and pencil computations. You will notice that number sentences will be written in a horizontal form (2+3=5). Research has shown that this encourages a natural progression toward understanding place value. We would appreciate your support in presenting problems in this manner.
READING WORKSHOP
There will be many opportunities for your child to read throughout the day. We will have formal instruction in large group and small groups, as well as time for independent reading each day. Students will be expected to read at home each night. Your child will bring home a book to read each night. Please help your child with his/her chosen book. This book will be at your child’s reading level and will be “just right” for him/her. Other reading can consist of: telling a story through the illustrations, listening to a story, taking turns reading with someone, tape recording a story, discussing a book that was read, etc. Our emphasis in reading will be on the enjoyment of reading, acquisition of skills, and comprehension of what is read. We will have book discussions to help us further comprehend and make connections among books, authors, real life and writing. We will also begin to use reading as a tool to investigate information.
LUNCH
Each child will have a lunch account in which parents can deposit a lump sum. Lunch money should be sent in the provided sealed envelope with your child’s name, grade and room number on it. The children will need to turn money in for lunch accounts in the morning. Lunch costs $2.20 (includes milk), and milk alone is $.50. You may send more money, and it will be applied to your child’s account. The lunch room will send home a notice when the account is running low on funds.
For those who bring lunch from home, please be aware of sending healthy, stamina-building foods and refrain from soda (especially caffeinated) and junk food. Sharing with fellow students is not permitted.
WRITING WORKSHOP
Children will be given many opportunities to write throughout the day. They might write to explain their thinking in math, take notes in science or respond to their reading. We will also have a formal time which is called Writing Workshop when they become real authors. This begins with a mini-lesson during which a specific skill is taught. The children then have an opportunity to write, revise and confer with peers about the content of their writing. At the end of the workshop, small groups of students will be given an opportunity to share their writing and strategies that they tried. Skills will also be taught on an individual basis as children are ready to use them. We will take our writing through a writing cycle including: collecting ideas, picking an idea to focus on, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. We will also study different genres of writing throughout the year, such as poetry, non-fiction, and letter writing.
SPELLING
Spelling is a developmental process. Children will be encouraged to use invented spelling, especially for words that are above grade level but are in their speaking vocabulary. This encourages them to use more descriptive and exact words. Spelling instruction will focus on spelling patterns and using the letter sounds to spell unknown words. We will also focus on high frequency words, words that are used frequently in the students’ writing. These words will be added to our word wall and will become “no excuse words” for the entire class. This means that we expect the children to spell these words correctly in all of the writing that they do.
SPECIAL CLASSES
Specials are everyday for 50 minutes. Please see the ABCD Rotation Schedule to be sure your child wears tennis shoes on P.E. days.
Physical Education: Robin Ehrlich and Gail Velten
Music: Tracy St.Clair
Art: Vanessa Lang
We will schedule the computer lab and library story times to best fit our needs. The students will, however, continue to check out library books with the class biweekly. If your child finishes his/her books before the next scheduled library visit, please return the books to school. Your child may then visit the library to choose new books.
SNACK TIME
Since lunch is at 11:20, students are often hungry by the afternoon. We plan to have a snack after specials each day. Each child is responsible for bringing his/her own healthy snack. We know that unhealthy snacks are not conducive to a productive learning environment; therefore, we suggest sending low-sugar snacks. Some examples of healthy choices are: any kind of fruit or vegetable, string cheese, pretzels, goldfish crackers, granola bars or graham crackers. Keep in mind that we do NOT have utensils, plates or napkins. Individually wrapped items are easier. Please do not send drinks. We have a water fountain outside of our classroom.
BIRTHDAY TREATS
We love celebrating birthdays in first grade! Feel free to send in a birthday treat for your child to share with the class. You may send the treat in the morning, then we will sing and celebrate during snack time. Please send only store-bought goods. Individual size treats (like cupcakes or cookies) are probably your best bet. PLEASE DO NOT SEND COOKIE CAKES! Things that need to be cut with a knife are a problem. Thanks, in advance, for your consideration of this.
SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES
Some of our inquiries will stem from the science curriculum: Plants, Animals, Force and Motion, States of Matter and Weather. Other inquiries will stem from the social studies curriculum: Civics, Culture, History, Economics and Geography. Through our studies we will develop the science process skills: observing, describing and communicating, and the social studies tools of inquiry: acquiring, arranging and thinking about information, and making decisions.
GOING HOME
Walkers and car riders will be escorted to the North front doors to meet you. Bus riders are escorted to their buses in the back of the building by a teacher as each bus arrives. If there is any change in your child’s going home procedure, we MUST have a signed note. Legally, we must have this information before allowing any change of plans. This includes scouts, language class, clubs, friends going home together, parent change of plans, etc. If you have an emergency change in transportation, please call the office at 213-6120. Mrs. Wheeler will hand deliver a note to the teacher. Many times we have meetings during lunch and plan time and are unable to check email and voice mail until after school.
DISCIPLINE
Each class discusses and decides on its own list of classroom rules. Our goal is to create a safe learning environment to aid our students in making responsible choices. We will spend time talking about the Keysor Pride words: Kindness, Respect, Responsibility, and Honesty. We expect to see these words in action all year long! We believe that communication is important in maintaining a positive learning environment. Therefore, we will keep you informed about your child’s behavior. Each week your child will bring home a red folder with a behavior rubric for you to sign and return. Please refer to the Keysor Handbook for specific school-wide discipline policies.
FIRST GRADE NEWSLETTER
Many Mondays we will send a newsletter home in backpack mail relating the previous week’s happenings and upcoming events. Please read it thoroughly together as a family.
HOMEWORK
There are only 10 ways to become a better reader...read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, and read! Help your child become a better reader by setting up a consistent time and place for this important reading work to take place.
Your child is expected to read each night for homework - see the “READING” section for more information. Your child will be responsible for bringing back his/her book club book each day. We will also periodically send a math sheet home that correlates to what we are working on in class. This activity is optional and does not need to come back to school. Homework should be a fun time to practice skills we have been working on in class. The district expectation is that first graders will have approximately ten minutes of homework each night.