You can grow ideas in the garden of your mind. All you have to do is think and they'll grow."
-Fred Rogers”
Class Policies and Information
Class Rules
Raise your hand to talk
Follow directions quickly
Use inside voices
Make smart choices
Keep your dear teacher happy!
Students start each day with 5 points. If they break a rule repeatedly, they will lose a point. Depending on the circumstances, like throwing objects/hitting friends, they may lose more than 1 point. At the end of the day, the number of points they have is how many stones they earn for their cup. Students will record their number for the day inside their planner. Please check this with them and ask them how their day went. All people make mistakes, and losing a point or two is not a big deal, unless it become a daily occurrence. If there is a more severe behavior issue, I will either right a quick note in their planner OR will contact you via phone or email. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Once a student's cup is full, they can dump the stone in exchange for a prize. We will come up with a menu of prizes as a class.
Homework Homework is to practice skills that have already been taught in the classroom. We all need practice to get good at a skill. Children need to practice basic reading, writing, spelling, and math on a consistent basis. Each week 1st Graders are asked to complete the following homework:
Reading for 20 min each night. This includes independent reading, sight word practice, and being read to by an older sibling or parent. This reading time (total minutes) is to be recored in their planner, and parents initial the date.
Practice spelling words for the week. Spelling list and a menu of practice activities will be part of the weekly homework packet. Please initial the activities your student does during the week.
Math Packets - worksheets for the lessons taught the previous week will be sent home on Monday. Please help encourage your student to pace him/herself and do a worksheet a night, and not the entire packet in one evening.
Handwriting - When handwriting pages are sent home, please work with your child and help them correctly form their letters
All homework is due on on Fridays. Students will be graded on homework completion as part of their leadership grade. There will be classroom rewards for completing homework on time and consistently over time. Homework packets submitted more than a week late will be deducted 5 points.
Make-Up Work
Classwork and homework that is missed due to excused absences will have as many days as missed to make up work. For example, if you are absent 2 days, you will have 2 school days to make up the missed work.
Classwork that students do not finish in the allowed time will be given to them to complete during Finish Center time. Students that have completed all assignments will have choice centers during this time.
Grading
1st grade will use 1, 2, 3, 4 instead of traditional letter grades of A, B, C, D, F.
Students will be graded on teh basis of skill mastery and knowledge
Social skills and behavior will be addressed separately with citizenship grades and pertinent comment\
History and Science -
10 points weekly for participation
Leadership -
Planner use - 10 points (1 for sentence, 1 for bringing each day)
Homework: (Graded for completion)
Math: 5 points
Spelling (spelling will start approximately 4 weeks into the school year)- 5 points
Morning Work- 1 point/day
Math
Class participation: 2 points/day
Benchmark exams
Test
Quizzes
Language Arts
Spelling tests
Writing samples
Class work and center’s work
Weekly tests
Class participation: 2 points/day
Website and Aspire My website will be updated on Fridays. I will send out an email each week when it is ready. I will update Aspire on Mondays.