Dear Parents,

 

            Welcome to the new school year!  I want your child to have a fun and successful year in Kindergarten.  Please feel free to contact me if there are situations that need to be discussed.  The best times to reach me by phone at school (643-4529) are from 12:10-12:35 and 2:45-3:00.  You may also email me at sally.roberts@rcstn.net.  I am always willing to schedule a conference with you at any time!

 

ALL of this information is also on my website:  http://www.rcstn.net/sally.roberts.

 

School hours: 

School begins promptly with the late bell at 7:45 and ends at 2:45.

 

Attendance:

A successful school experience is the responsibility of the children, the parent, and the school.  Your child's progress, both academically and socially, is influenced to a great extent by daily participation.  Regular attendance, without tardiness is important.

 

Transportation:

If you plan to pick up your child, that normally rides the bus, you must send a written note or contact the office at 643-4529.  If you wish for your child to ride a different bus to a friends' house, a note must be sent form the parent or guardian of each child involved, both from the sending parent or guardian and receiving parent or guardian.  Your child can not be the sole reporter of this information.  If no written note or phone call is received, your child will be sent home by his/her usual method.

 

School Work:

Please look in your child's bag each day.  We send all school news by way of your child.  Be positive and value the work your child has done at school.  Your child will have a daily folder to carry back and forth to school and may have other items such as the surprise sack, the stars, or an additional bag with a theme.  On the back of the communicator, your child will color the number of treasure chests with which they ended the day; please sign or intial this daily.  Remember, I am preparing your child for the next 12 years of their life.  One way I teach them to follow rules is to take a treasure chest when they need to change a behavior.  This is a learning tool, not necessarily as reason to be punished.

 

Special classes:

Your child will attend the following classes on the following days.  Please be sure they have what is needed for these classes.

Physical education        Monday           will need tennis shoes

Library                         Friday              will need library book
Health                          Monday           will need tennis shoes

Guidance                      Tuesday

Music                           Thursday

Computer                     Friday

Recess                         daily                 will need tennis shoes

You may send an old pair of tennis shoes to keep at school if you wish.

 

Letter Series:

We use Saxon to introduce our letters and learn about reading.  From time to time, you will see things coming home from this series.  We do a worksheet daily and it will be returned when I grade it and record the grade.  After a few weeks, at the end of the week, a Reading practice sheet will come home.  Please return this sheet when they can read these words.  We begin testing them on the skills from this series after the first few weeks.  Further in the year, your child will bring home books that they should be able to read and discuss.  Please listen to your child read these books and return them when the child can read them.

 

Lunch money:

Lunch money should always be sent in a sealed envelope or baggie with your child's name, your child's lunch number, my name, and the amount written on the outside.  You may also pay, with a fee, online.  Please make checks payable to Greenbrier Elementary and include the lunch number on the for line.  If you would like a free/reduced lunch form, please let me know or contact the school office at 643-4529.  Your child may also bring his/her lunch.  Please label lunch boxes or sacks with your child's name.  If your child brings his/her lunch and would like to purchase milk that day, the cost is .35 cents.  Ice cream is offered for grades 1^st -5^th only.

 

Star of the Week:

I look forward to learning about each student in our room!!  This activity also helps children to discover commonalities with their peers.  Your child will have an opportunity to be our Kindergarten star of the week.   They will be our door holder for this week.  Each child is asked to bring the stars and vis-à-vis marker back with the information completed on the stars.  They may bring photos that show any of this information.

 

Line Leader:

Your child will be our line leader, for a day, occasionally. The night before, your child will bring home the surprise sack.  This is a way for us to build our language skills.  This is similar to show and tell except instead of telling, the child gives us three clues so we can guess what is in the surprise sack.  Please practice the clues with your child and send them in their communicator.

 

Rest, Read, Enjoy music, quiet time:

Our class will rest from 1:45-2:20.  Your child is not required to go to sleep, but must relax quietly during this time so they don't disturb those who are sleeping.  Please bring a towel or mat to leave at school for this purpose.

 

Birthdays and Treats:

Simple treats may be sent to school on your child's birthday.  Sending a treat is optional.  Birthday treats are appreciated, but not expected.  At the beginning of the year, we will celebrate the August birthdays and in May we will celebrate the summer birthdays.  With the new nutrition policy, sweets must be consumed at lunch time.

 

Book orders:

Your child will have the opportunity to order books for your home library each month.  The book orders are from Scholastic Books and will be sent home each month.  I will place the order on the 20th of the month unless otherwise noted.

 

Discipline:

School rules:

Keep hands, feet, and objects to yourself.

We will have quiet lines.

We walk at all times.

 

Our classroom rules include:

Listen carefully with eyes, ears, mouth, hands, and feet.

Follow Directions.

Work quietly.

Respect others with your words and actions.

Work and play safely.

 

I believe in having high expectations of the children to follow classroom and school rules and to help them understand the reasons behind rules.  I want all of the children to have the opportunity to learn and for no student to keep another student from being able to learn.  Beginning the first day of school, I will remind the children that I have two jobs:  to help them learn and to keep them safe.  I strive to provide a safe and comfortable learning environment for the children in which we work and live as a team in our classroom.

 

Your child begins each day with 5 treasure chests.  Treasure chests are taken away as behavior needs to be modified.  Treasure chests are given back when the corrections in the behavior have been made.  If a child looses all 5 chests before they are gained back, the school wide punch card will be used and they will miss 3 minutes of recess for each punch.  During lunch, specials, arrivals, and dismissals, teachers can inform me that your child's behavior warranted a punch.  Your child can have 3 punches per five day week, 2 punches per four day week, and 1 punch per three day week and still receive the school wide behavior reward for the nine weeks.  All punch cards must be signed and returned to receive the reward.

 

Fighting and/or dangerous behaviors or disruptive behaviors that keep others from learning or being safe may require removal of a student from the classroom and must be reported immediately to our Principal, Mrs. Grogan.  A note will be sent home if this occurs and the child will not be eligible for the reward for that nine weeks.

 

In addition, I will always contact you by phone or in the communicator if there is ever a situation that needs to be addressed.  It is important to me that we keep our lines of communication open and work together to meet the needs of your child.  Since we are a team, I will be calling you by your first name.

 

Room needs:

Please let me know if you are interested in helping with Bulletin Boards, cutting out materials, hand writing sight words etc.

 

Wish List:

Items that are needed for the classroom and the list of items collected at school are listed on my website.  (http://www.rcstn.net/sally.roberts)

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.  I am excited to be your child's teacher and I plan to provide a safe and fun learning environment for your child.  Thank you for sharing your child with me!!!

 

Sincerely,

 

Sally Roberts