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 Welcome to 2019300-504824 Mrs. Beach’s 1st Grade ClassWelcome to 1st Grade! I am very excited to be teaching your child this year, and I am looking forward to a wonderful year. We are going to have a great time together and learn many new and exciting things. In this letter you will find important information about what to expect this year in 1st grade. Rules / Discipline ChartThe school rules are:Respect all adults, students, and property.Listen and follow directions.Keep hands, feet, and other objects to yourself.Walk quietly.Put things back and clean up.Our classroom rules are:Listen when your teacher is talking.Follow directions quickly.Keep your hands and feet to yourself.Raise your hand to speak or stand.Be safe, be kind, and be honest. Mind your own business. The first weeks of school will be a time of re-adjusting to new routines and getting used to being back at school. I realize that these changes can be difficult but we will work together to make sure this will be as easy as possible for each child. I want my students to stay safe while at school so I will be expecting them to learn the rules and follow them.This year I will be using a new behavior management system in my classroom. It will be called our "Behavior Clip Chart" and I hope it will be a positive way to help keep students behavior on track each day. The chart will look something like this example. Each child will start their day with their clip on "Ready to Learn". Depending on their behavior, they may move their clip up or down throughout the day. If a student is working, being a good listener and on task, they will be allowed to move up on the chart. If a student is not following school or class rules and is not on task they will be asked to move their clip down the chart. Once a student reaches "Think About It" they should stop to think about what they are doing wrong, and how they can correct the behavior. If a student corrects wrong behaviors and gets back on task they may be allowed to move their clip back up to "Ready to Learn". If wrong behaviors continue the student's clip will be moved down the chart again. If a student has their clip on "Teacher’s Choice" they may be given silent lunch, lose computer privileges, or have to sit out of special classroom activities. If a student does not try to correct wrong behaviors and their clip ends up on "Parent Contact", I will be contacting you as parents concerning the behaviors of the day. My hope with using this clip chart will help my students to obey class and school rules and understand that even though they may slip up, they can correct wrong behaviors and still have a great day! I will write or make a color dot in your child's planner every afternoon and let you know where their clip ended up that day. Please check this every night and initial their planner so we can praise them as well as correct any problems that might arise.Daily 5We will be using the Daily 5 in our classroom this year. The Daily Five is a way of structuring the reading block so every student is independently engaged in meaningful literacy tasks. These research based tasks are ones that will have the biggest impact on student reading and writing achievement, as well as help foster children who love to read and write. Students receive explicit whole group instruction and then are given independent practice time to read and write independently while I provide focused, intense instruction to individuals and small groups of students.During the Daily 5 time, students will be engaged in:Read to SelfWork on WritingRead to SomeoneListen to ReadingWord WorkThere are very specific behavior expectations that go with each Daily 5 component.? We will spend our first weeks working intensely on building our reading and writing stamina, learning the behaviors of the Daily 5 and fostering our classroom community.? I will also spend time learning about your child’s strengths and greatest needs as a reader in order to best plan for each student’s instruction.Your child will be taught to select “Good Fit Books” or books they can read, understand and are interested in, which they will read during Daily 5. They will be spending most of their time actually reading, which research supports as the number one way to improve reading.? I anticipate that your child's excitement for reading will skyrocket when this gift of choosing their own books is accompanied by extended practice and specific reading instruction for each individual child.I am excited about giving your child the opportunity to be involved in a structure that will have a positive effect on their education. Please think of our classroom as you visit garage sales or clean your own child’s bookcase.? It is my goal to make our classroom library as appealing as your favorite bookstore for browsing. LLIIn the classroom, some students will also be using a program called LLI. It allows me to pull the students in groups and work on different strategies to help their reading abilities. We break down the words to help the students see the reason things are happening in the words. We look at root word, consonant blends, prefixes, suffixes, common words found inside of other words. This program allows the students to bring home a book every night to read with you the parent. I hope that you will ask the student what they learned that day when we used the book.AR TestingYour child will be expected to take AR test and make an 85% or better on their test. They may need to read their book several nights before taking a test. I expect the student to take at least 2 test on their books read at home each week. They will also be taking an AM math test on the items we are learning in class. This they will be doing during class time. LetterlandWe will be using Letterland in our classroom this year for spelling. Our 1st grade Letterland will be a continuation of Kindergarten with additional characters and stories teaching us about new sounds. We will also be doing fluency practice in 1st grade so please help your child practice their fluency each night. Simply time them for 1 minute as they read the entire spelling list from the top. When the timer stops count the words correct and this is their fluency score. It is amazing how much this can help your child with their reading. TestsWe do have tests in 1st grade, I will make sure that students have covered material that I place on tests. If I see a need, we will review topics that may give them trouble.Spelling - We will have a spelling test each Friday. There will be a pretest so please help your child study throughout the week. The Spelling City site will be a great way for them to practice at home. Letterland list have been added to the site and there is a link on my website for easy access. They will also be practicing throughout the week during Daily 5, LLI, and with homework each night.Math - We will be using Big Ideas Math this year. Students will have assessments at the end of each unit of learning. I will also give quiz type tests throughout as well to check progress as we go. This year with the new North Carolina Standards our Reading will be done a bit differently. We may not have a reading test each week, but we will be doing projects and other items along with test when needed with our stories. Our hope is that students will get a broad range of knowledge and skills through this type of learning.Planners / Homework NotebooksYour child will need a planner and a 2 inch 3-ring binder this year to use as our Homework Notebooks. These notebooks are going to be a very important part of helping them stay organized. The notebooks will include their planners, Letterland spelling lists, and many other helpful pages full of resources. Your child will need to bring this notebook with them to school every day because I will communicate with you through it and they will have their homework assignments and word lists in them. Please check this notebook each night for letters or important papers from school. Reading Log: This will need to be filled out every night. It is not an option. Your child will need to read 30 minutes every night. Once they have read the log will be filled out. I will show them how to do that once school starts. The goal is for the student to fill it out and you sign that it was completed. You can do this reading together. Ex. Child reads a page then you read a page. Weekly Spelling List: You will see a weekly spelling list in your child’s notebook at the beginning of the week. They will have to choose three activities to do with the words and need to do a practice spelling test on Thursday nights to turn in for their weekly grade. I will teach the activities to the children before they will be able to choose an activity. Fluency Folder: Your child will also bring home a fluency folder. In the beginning they will just read the words and be timed to see how many words they read and how many words they missed. Later in the year there will be questions to go along with the fluency practice. It is 1 question per day. Tuesday FoldersEach Tuesday I will be sending home a “Tuesday Folder” which will include your child’s work for the week. On the occasion that your child needs to correct work it will be in the folder. Please make sure this folder comes back on Wednesday so we can start filing work again for the following Tuesday. Please sign the folder sheet to let me know that you and your child have looked over the work. Then put the work back in the folder to return back to school. I will keep for the remainder of the nine weeks then return the work after conferences are held. This helps in the event that a grade doesn’t get saved in the gradebook. If I have the work it is easier to fix.Class WebpageThe address to Oak Hill’s website is and our page can be found under Classroom Pages on the left. We will be listing any announcements on this page as well as the class dojo app. This page will include links to educational and fun games your child may like to play. I will also be placing our spelling lists on Spelling City for your child to practice each week so please let them browse around that site. It is a great way to practice spelling words while having fun.Field Trips Our class will take several field trips throughout the year. Some of these will be to the Broyhill Civic Center. On these trips parents unfortunately cannot attend because of seating issues. As the year progresses I will be working with Kindergarten and 2nd grade teachers to plan other trips and information will be sent home concerning these trips. Parents are welcome on trips unless otherwise stated in the permission form. PaymentsCaldwell County has a new online payment site where parents can pay for field trips and other items such as yearbooks, etc. An information letter will be in your child's yellow information folder from the school. CelebrationsIf there is a special occasion such as a birthday, please bring the cupcakes, cookies, etc. at our designated lunch time. If we have parties throughout the year I will ask for parent volunteers to bring items at that time. Grading ProceduresYou will be able to look at your child’s grade at any time using the online system. You will need to see Mrs. King in the office to get your user name and password. Then you can log on to the website (PowerTeacher) and see all the work that has been graded. At most times all work will be graded and posted by the end of the week. Lesson PlansYou can access my lesson plans by clicking on the link that is on my school web page. Once you are there you can click on the different tabs to find what you need. The tab that says homework is what they have that day if they didn’t finish it in class. The tab that tells you items to be graded is exactly what I will be grading and will be put in the gradebook. ContractsIf your child was on contract when the year ended, I will start them on a contract again this year. Once they are meeting the goals set forth by our contract I can pull them off. This allows me to make sure their needs are being met on a daily basis. Late Work:If your child is absent from school then they will have 3 days to complete that work and return it to me. Once the 3 days are gone they will lose 10 points per day late. If your student was present and fails to turn in the work the next day, then it will be counted late and receive a 10 point deduction as well. I also weight my test by 2 compared to the other work. I feel the test is my way of making sure the student understands and can complete the work.Tutoring/ Intervention:I will be pulling children who need some extra help during their speciality time to do extra instruction to help fill the gaps that they may have or that may arise as we learn through the year. Please let me know if you feel your child is struggling in something once they return home and try to do their homework. I am always happy to help them.Class Tag:I will also be sending messages for you through Class Tag. So I will need each parent to sign up to receive the messages. This app also allows you to sign up for conferences and communicate with me if need be.What You Can Expect in: 1st GradeFirst grade is all about expanding upon developing skills your child may have picked up in kindergarten and preschool. Your 1st grader will gain more control over his/her own body and impulses and will expand his understanding of the world around him/her.He/ She will become more independent, even beginning to earnestly read on his/ her own.Many 1st grade lesson plans will place increasing emphasis on the academic -- 1st grade reading, math, spelling, and so on -- and many 1st graders will begin to get more and increasingly difficult homework than they did in kindergarten.Here’s a general overview of what you can expect to see in your child as he moves through 1st grade lesson plans. Your 1st grader will be able to:First Grade Social Skills:Become even more adept at paying attention, following instructions and exercising self-control.Learn how to work together with classmates on a group project.Become more attuned to the concept of fairness and justice.Gain more confidence in expressing opinions and sharing stories, such as during morning meetings.First Grade Reading and Writing:Read books in small groups with a teacher.Begin independent reading.Be able to identify ideas and details of a story, and be able to re-tell events of a story in order.Learn words with similar patterns (such as "bat," "sat," and "cat").Become more skilled at using sounds of letters to read simple words.Expand her list of "sight words" -- words that are frequently used.Write his full name (if he hasn’t learned to do so already).Work on handwriting.Write simple words and sentences (often still without emphasis on correct spelling). Use two or three sentences to create stories.Learn how to correctly use punctuation and capitalization in sentences.Understand and learn plurals of nouns.First Grade Math:Count to 120 by groups of small numbers such as 2s, 5s, and 10s. Be able to recognize and write numbers up to 120.Understand concepts such as equal to or greater than as well as addition and subtraction; become familiar with symbols such as "+," "-," "=," "<," ">."Add numbers up to 10 in her head.Be able to do simple subtraction.Work with coins and add sums.Identify simple patterns.Learn how to measure sums such as length, weight.Understand and identify simple fractions (1/2, 1/3, 1/4).Begin to tell time on an analog clock.First Grade Science and Social Studies:Gain a better understanding of his senses.Identify animals and classify them into groups (marine, mammals, etc.).Learn about oceans and sea life.Learn about life cycles.Identify the stages of the moonUnderstand what living things need to grow.Parent InvolvementAs a parent, I understand how tiring and amazing our jobs are. I hope you will be able to take time throughout the year to visit our classroom and be involved in our learning. Please let me know if you would like to volunteer in our classroom to read with students or help in other ways. I want to have open communication with you as a parent so we can make sure each child is receiving the best education and experience possible. Together we can make a difference in your child’s life. In closing, I want to thank each of you for sharing your child with me. I hope your child enjoys my classroom and the journey we will be taking together. I strive to provide a safe and caring learning environment for all students. I do have a no bullying policy in my classroom so please talk with your child and let them know it is ok to talk to me if someone is bullying them. If at any time you have questions or concerns, feel free to contact me by email @ cbeach@ or by phone at school. If we are out of the classroom or I am teaching you may need to leave a message, but I will check messages throughout the day and will call you back as soon as possible. I plan on having an outstanding year and can't wait to watch our class succeed!Sincerely,Mrs. Beach1st Grade TeacherOak Hill Elementary ................
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