Welcome to First Grade
The ABC’s of Miss Homoelle’s Class
A
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Absences – If a student should miss school because of illness or a death in the immediate family, please send in a note excusing the absence upon the return of the student to school. In the note please include your child’s first and last name and dates he/she were absent. Please send in a note, no emails!
5 Absences—The teacher will contact parent by telephone. 10 Absences—A letter will be sent from a school administrator regarding absences. 15 Absences—A referral shall be made to the School Social Worker.
B
• Birthdays We love to celebrate special days. Please let me know ahead of time if you would like to bring a treat for your child's birthday. I would appreciate if you would send in a simple individual snack. Cupcakes and cookies are easy. If you send a cookie cake, please have it cut ahead of time and send in paper products. We will have our celebrations right after lunch.
B
• Book Buddies: Our book buddies will be Ms. Harden’s third grade class.
B
• Book Orders Each month I will be sending home Scholastic Book Orders. This is a great way to purchase books for your child. Please make checks payable to SCHOLASTIC.
C
• CRCT
Stands for Criterion Reference Competency Test. This is a test given by the state of Georgia. All students are required to take this test. At this time, first graders are not required to pass the test for promotion to second grade. The CRCT will be given April.
D
• Dress Code Please refer to the Mt. Bethel Dress Code policy in your Mt. Bethel PTA calendar. Skating shoes are not allowed at school. Tennis shoes are to be worn on all PE days. Appropriate dress is required each day.
E
• Email Procedures
The best way to get in touch with me is via email. I check my email throughout the day and will be able to respond quickly to any questions or concerns. It is easier for me to make phone calls after school, so if you need me to call you, send me an email and I will call you as soon as I can after dismissal. My email address is : Meredith.Homoelle@cobbk12.org
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• Field Trips We will go on several field trips this year. We will also have two in-house field trips with High Touch High Tech. On field trip days, please have your child wear their class t-shirt and bring a large snack.
G
• Grading
Measures progress toward the standard. Students will receive the following :
– 3- Consistently meeting the standard – 2- Progressing toward meeting the standard – 1 – Limited or minimum progress toward meeting the standard Please keep in mind first grade is a developmental year and students learn at different rates. Therefore, it is the expectation students will be progressing towards the standard.
H
• Handwriting Please refer to the handwriting information found in your Open House Packet for specifics on handwriting. You have also purchased your child a handwriting book that they will use in the classroom in order to practice handwriting.
I, J, K
• Items Left at Home - If you child leaves something at home, and you bring it to school for them, please leave it in the office. We have a lot of learning to do each day, so please do not bring it to the classroom. Juice- When sending in snacks, please send in clear juice. Otherwise it will stain the carpet.
Keep – Be sure to keep this at your fingertips to help you answer questions you many have.
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L
• Lunch – Our lunch time is 11:06-11:36. On Early ReleaseDays our lunch time will be 9:58-10:28. • Lunch Visitors – We welcome parents and grandparent to join us for lunch. However, the school asks that you not bring lunch from outside restaurant for your child. When visiting your child for lunch, make sure to sign as a visitor, and then wait for us at the entrance to the Dining Room. I also ask that you tell your child Good-Bye in the Dining Room.
M
• Media Center
We will visit the Media Center once a week as a class, however, your child may exchange books as often as needed. • Mystery Reader We will have a Mystery Reader each Friday beginning at 8:00. Mystery Readers are a secret, so please don’t tell your child when you are coming to visit. You should plan on bringing books with you to read. These can be your child’s favorite books or seasonal books.
N, O
• Newsletter
A weekly newsletter will posted to our BLOG each Thursday. An email notice will be sent to your email when the newsletter is ready to be viewed.
• On Line Resources
Our class BLOG will be full of on line resources. Please refer to our BLOG for help in reading, math, and language arts. http://mtbethel.blogs.com/homoelle/ The Mt. Bethel BLOGS homepage is also full of resources for you. http://mtbethel.blogs.com
P
• Parent/Teacher Conferences
Parent/Teacher Conferences are an opportunity for us to discuss your child’s progress both socially and academically. Conferences will be held January 26th- January 30th. However, if you need to schedule additional conferences, I am always available to you throughout the year.
• Parent Volunteers
Once a month First Grade Teachers will meet as a grade level in order to plan collaboratively for two hours. During our absence, we will ask parents to sub in our classrooms. You must be trained through Mt. Bethel in order to be a parent sub.
Q
• Questions If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me anytime. Remember the quickest response is through EMAIL.
R
• Read to Your Child You are a great model for your child. Everyone loves to be read to. • Report Cards Report cards are issued four times a year, every nine weeks. As teachers, we are required to report how your child is progressing towards the Georgia Performance Standard and these will reflect this.
S
• Specials We have specials each day from 12:20-1:05. Please refer to the schedule I send home in your child’s folder monthly to know which special your child will be going to. Tennis shoes are required for PE.
• Spelling Students will not receive a spelling grade until the second nine weeks. At that time we will be covering the Rebecca Sitton Spelling List. There are 35 words students need to master for first grade. Students’ spelling will be graded in their writing, as well as tests.
T
• Take Home Folders Your child will bring home a folder each night. Important papers and your child’s classwork will be in there. Sometimes there will be items in the folder and somedays it may be empty. I check daily, so if you need to send in a note, this is a safe place to store it. Thursday Folders Each Thursday, your child will bring home a Behavior Folder. Please see the example in your Open House Packet. Please review your child’s folder each Thursday.
Transportation Changes Your child's safety is important to me so please let me know if he or she will go home a different way than usual by sending a note. If your child is going to someone's house after school, please send a note in the morning. This note should include the slot if the child will ride a bus with a friend. d return it to school the next day signed.
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U, V
• Understand
Understand that First Graders are very busy during the day and need to get a good nights sleep each night.
• Vowels
The vowels in our alphabet are : a, e, i, o, u. Remember they have both long and short sounds and first graders need lots of help recognizing the correct sound these when reading.
W
• Work Habits
A huge part of first grade is developing positive work habits. We work really hard on this from putting our name on all of our papers, to keeping our room neat, to keeping up with our materials. It is an on going process, but we set the stage in first grade.
XYZ
• Your Support Thank you so much for your support. I could not do what I do without you.