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Mrs. Jansen's 1st Grade Class |
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FAQFrequently Asked Questions: This page contains answers to common questions of students and parents.
What is the "Star of the Week"? Every week, I will choose a child to be "Star of the Week". The choice is dependent on exemplary behavior and attitude towards learning. If your child is chosen, he/she will get to take home a cut-out puzzle and a piece of construction paper. Please have your child decorate each of the 6 puzzle pieces in a different way describing who they are. Feel free to draw or use photos. You may either cut the puzzle pieces apart and glue them on the construction paper or you may leave them intact when gluing. If there is extra space on the construction paper, you may put a title or any added pieces of information your child would like to share. When your child brings in the poster, they will share it with the class and then I will hang up the poster on the "Star of the Week" bulletin board. The student will also be allowed to bring in their favorite book for me to read to the class. In addition to sharing their favorite things with us, I will chose the child for special jobs in the classroom. If your child is chosen to be "Star of the Week", please help them decorate their posters and write out their favorite things to share with the class. We look forward to learning more about your child and family! Mileage Club is a program for 1st-5th grade students to encourage healthy bodies and healthy minds. The students are given opportunities before school and during recess to run or walk laps around the track. Each student is given a yellow mileage club card to track how many laps they have completed (1 card equals 5 miles). When they have completed 20 laps (5 miles), they are given a "toe token" and a chain necklace to wear. Each time they fill up their yellow card, they receive another "toe token". In addition to the "toe tokens", your child will be recognized with an award from Mr. Tubbs at the Friday morning assembly for completing 2 yellow cards! Please encourage or join with your child to participate in our Mileage Club campaign for "Healthy Bodies = Healthy Minds"! Do you collect Box Tops for Education? Yes! Please look for the Box Top coupon on the back of any store bought item. Have your child bring in the Box Tops and place them in the classroom container marked "Box Tops". When the entire container is filled with Box Top coupons, I will throw a popcorn party for the students! Keep those Box Tops coming! How do I place a Scholastic Book Order? I would like a parent volunteer to run the Scholastic book ordering. If you are interested, please email me. You will be distributing the Scholastic catalogs on a monthly basis. When a child brings the magazine home and places an order, the will send your order form with a check in a sealed envelope. There is a "Scholastic Drop-Off" basket in the classroom on top of the cubbies. The volunteer will be periodically checking the drop-off for any orders to place on her monthly order. When the orders arrive, the books will be distributed to the child at school. Why is it important to order through Scholastic? Scholastic provides you the opportunity to build up your home library and earn points for the classroom at the same time. The points earned from Scholastic enable me to purchase books for the classroom and provide books for my students to read. I try to build enough points to order the children an "end-of-the-year" book as a gift. Lions Quest is a character building program used by the district. Your child will continue to use some form of this program throughout his/her elementary career. Each month, a new character trait will be the focus. Your child will participate in classroom activities dealing with the character trait and Mr. Tubbs will be giving out 2 certificates of recognition per class for the most exemplary students displaying these traits. The monthly character traits are as follows: September- Citizenship October- Resonsibility November- Cooperation December- Caring January- Respect February- Fairness/Justice March- Trustworthiness/Integrity April- Perseverance May- Ambition What happens if my child loses a jacket, backpack or other item? There is a Lost and Found at school where things go if found. It is outside the media center in the inside of the school. PLEASE LABEL ALL JACKETS, BACKPACKS AND LUNCHBOXES. It makes it easier to identify things both in and out of the classroom. Thank you! Due to the strict health and wellness policy of the district we are unable to accept edible treats for birthday celebrations. If your child wishes to bring something to school for the whole class such as pencils, erasers, stickers and other non-edibles, they may distribute those items to other students at the end of the school day. Yes. I will be cooking breakfast for the students on the last day of school before the Winter break. In addition, we will have a "100th Day of School Party" and an "End of the Year Party". Each child will receive a small treat and participate in educational activities to celebrate these special occasions. Will my child ever receive sugary treats at school? From time to time, we will participate in educational activities that will include a sugary treat for the student. If you would like to opt your student out of these types of activities, please let me know. What can I do to help my child? Check your child's backpack daily! Review the papers coming home and discuss the students progress with them. If papers need to be corrected or the student did not follow directions, I will write a note on the paper for them to take home and try again. Any completed papers can be returned to me by placing them in the silver bin marked "Homework" on top of the students cubbies. What can I do to help my child with reading ? To help your child improve their reading skills have them read to you for 20 minutes a day. Make sure they know all their letter names and sounds, review high frequency words and practice blending and segmenting words at home. Repeat reading (reading a passage more than once) can improve your child's confidence and fluency. In addition, echo reading can be useful in building confidence in young readers. If your child is struggling, make sure they are strong in the 5 building blocks of reading: Rhyming, Syllables, Isolating Sounds, Blending and Segmenting. Once your child is strong in these 5 areas, they will have a better foundation to move on to more advanced reading strategies. If you would like suggestions for home activities, I would be more than happy to meet with you and demonstrate additional reading strategies. Please feel free to contact me through email. The 1st grade students will be participating in the Reading Counts program. After reading a leveled reading passage, the student will take an online test to determine their comprehension of the passage. The student will earn points after each test passed. Certificates of achievement and incentives will be given to the students for specific points earned. How can I support the room parents? To support our room parents, you can offer assistance with planning and facilitating parties. They will be communicating with parents via email to keep you up-to-date on all related activities. Fun Friday is a fun and educational activity provided to the entire 1st grade class on Friday afternoons. To participate in Fun Friday, the students in my class must display good behavior and have all work completed for the week including homework. What is the Library procedure? Our Library time is now scheduled for Friday mornings at 9 a.m. Students are able to check out 1 book to read throughout the week. The books are due back the next Friday. If your child would like to bring his/her book in before Friday, they may keep the book in their desks until turning it in on Friday morning. We have a white bin located on top of the students cubbies marked "Library Books". Feel free to assist your child on Friday morning before school to place their library books in the bin. It is important to help your child bring their books back every Friday so they may be allowed to check out another one. I have set up a positive reinforcement system in my classroom using credit cards for each student. They have a 3x5 index card in the desks with their name and student number. Each time a child is displaying exemplary behavior, he is praised for the behavior and given a stamp on his credit card. After earning 15 stamps on the card, the student is able to chose from many rewards such as: picking out of the prize box, choosing a special pencil/eraser, renting special equipment for a day or joining the monthly lunch bunch with me. What kind of behavior system is set-up in the classroom? This year, I am using a clothespin clip chart labeled "Climb the Ladder to Success". The colors from top to bottom are: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. They are labeled from top to bottom as follows: outstanding, great job, good day, ready to learn, think about it, teacher's choice and parent contact. Every student has a clothespin with their name and student number. Each person starts the day out on the green space which is "ready to learn". As the student displays exemplary behavior, they are asked to move their clip up to the next level which is "good day". Every exemplary display of behavior results in the clip moving up until the student is on the top of the chart which is entitled "outstanding". Likewise, when the child has a temporary laps in judgment, they are asked to move their clip down. It is possible for them to move their clips down a total of three spaces until they get to "parent contact". In this case, I will send home a pink slip of paper which reads "making better choices". If your child brings home a pink slip, please review the comments and help your child think of ways in which they can make a better choice next time. To ensure that your child has the most successful and positive learning experience, become familiar with the rules and consequences and discuss them with your child. |
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