Attendance

 Attending school all day everyday (except for illness or emergency) is extremely important. Students arriving late and/or leaving early disrupt the learning of all of the other students in the class.  If your child misses school, she/he is missing important learning, which will be hard to regain. I will send home worksheets that your child missed, but we do a lot of other work, which can only be done at school. When it is necessary for your child to be absent, you need to send in a note with the reason for the absence.

Birthdays

 I am always happy to celebrate students' birthdays! If you wish to send in treats for the end of the day, please let me know a day or two ahead of time, so that I can adjust our schedule. Please consider what is needed to go along with the treats (ex. napkins) and send them too if possible.

 Please do not send birthday party invitations to school, unless all students will receive an invitation.  

Book Orders

 Every month or so, I will send home a Scholastic Book order. The books are written especially for elementary students and are sold at reduced prices. This is a great way to build your child's library. You will also be helping our class earn points, which I will use to buy books for our classroom.   

Grading/Report Cards

 Please check your child's folder each night. Some pages are practice pages and are not graded.  Papers that are graded will be marked with a percentage grade.  Look through the work and discuss it with your child. 

 At times, I may ask students to redo work that is not completed correctly at recess or for homework. 

 Report Cards will be sent home each nine weeks and interim reports will be sent home about halfway through each grading period. These should let you know how your child is progressing. If you ever have any questions about grades or how your child is doing, please ask. Remember, absences may affect grades.  

Newsletters

 Each Friday I will send home a newsletter. The purpose of the newsletter is to inform you of what your child is learning. Please make sure to check your child's folder for the newsletter each Friday.   

Student Numbers

 I give each student a number, which represents his or her place in alphabetical order.  I use the numbers to label things in the classroom that I use each year (ex. cubbies, baskets). When we go anywhere in the school, we line up in "number order". This helps keep the students from arguing about where to stand in line. The person at the front of the line is the helper for the day. The next day he/she will go to the end of the line and person number two will be the helper. This continues each day, with each student getting several turns to be the helper. 

Toys/Recess

 Please leave your toys at home. It is always sad when toys are lost or broken; which happens often when they are brought to school. Don't worry; we have a fun playground with plenty of equipment. I also have puzzles and games for inside recess, when we have bad weather.  

Transportation

 Please keep me informed about how your child will get home from school. If he/she is going home a different way, please send a note. Students feel more comfortable when they know how they are going home. I also feel better if I know whether students are being picked up or riding a bus.  

Visitors

Our school has a policy that visitors need to use the front entrance and stop at the office to sign in and get a visitor's pass. This may seem inconvenient, but please remember that it is the goal and responsibility of our school to create a safe learning environment.