Mr. Kruggel’s First Grade Class

1. Mr. Kruggel’s First Grade Class Welcome!

2. Welcome to First Grade! First grade is a very exciting year and it will be filled with many meaningful, enriching experiences for your child.

3. All About Me • My background • I grew up in Parma, Ohio and attended Cleveland Central Catholic H.S. • My experience • I am entering my 14th year of teaching • 3 yrs in second grade at St. Leo the Great. • 4 yrs as an Intervention Specialist at Big Creek Elementary. • 6 yrs as a First Grade teacher at Fairwood. • First grade has been my favorite experience.

4. My Family • My wife • Peggy • My children • Kaitlyn~9 • Jacob~5 • Our pets • Turtle~Franklin • Hamsters~Jango Fett and Rudy • Dog (coming soon!)

5. My Goals • I hope to fill this classroom with smiling faces • I hope to enrich, challenge, and make learning fun. • All children feel a sense pride when they walk out the door. • That they walk away from first grade happy each day.

6. Communication • Keeping the lines of communication open is very important for you and your child. Please feel free to contact me before or after school. You may also send a note with your child or email me @ • jkruggel@berea.k12.oh.us

7. Morning Routine • Hang book bags and jackets on their hooks. • Turn in any homework, teacher notes or office materials then put their folders in their mailboxes or cubbies. • Complete lunch choice whether they are buyers or packers. • Start morning activity.  • For some students, these routines take a couple of days or even a couple of weeks. If you send something with your child that doesn’t get turned in, please send it back the next day or feel free to call us. We do our best to check each folder; however we are encouraging the students to be responsible for these jobs. We do not check book bags. Please place all lunch money and notes in an envelope or baggie (labeled with your child’s name and teacher) and be sure it’s in the Take Home Folder!!

8. Behavior The first behavior plan targets each student’s individual behavior. I have a poster. Students start the day with their name on green. If they keep their name on green , that means the student had a great day making good choices. For example:  • No Warning = student stays on green. (Great Day) • 1st Warning = a verbal warning and student stays on green. • 2nd Warning = student moves to yellow (Okay Day.) • 3rd Warning = student moves to red and will lose 5 minutes of recess or free time (Needs to work on making better choices).

9. Behavior • Students will be responsible for tracking their daily behavior on a monthly calendar sheet. The calendar sheet will be kept in their take home folders. • The second behavior plan is for each small group. Since the students sit in stations, it is important for them to learn how to keep their materials together, work as a team, and encourage and help each other to be prepared for different activities. Teams are awarded points for being quiet, prepared, neat, using good citizenship skills, and other positive actions. • The third behavior plan is a whole group plan. Each day the class can earn a footprint, tally, marble…etc. for good behavior throughout the day. If they get three strikes (warnings) they will not earn their mark. When the class reaches a certain goal they will be rewarded with a special activity.

10. Special Activities If a child would like to celebrate his/her birthday during the year by bringing in a treat, they are welcome to. You can send your child in with enough treats for 20 students. Any student who has a birthday that falls in the summer will have the opportunity to celebrate it in late May or early June. Treat bags to take home are encouraged

11. Special Activities Person of the Week Share Bag Every day one student from each class will have the opportunity to bring in something for show and tell. We will send home a bag. The show and tell must fit in the bag. This is a great way for the students to share something special and it gives them the opportunity to work on good communication and speaking skills. Starting in October, a student each week one student will have the opportunity to share information about himself/herself and their family. We have attached a schedule of when your child is the person of the week. Please complete the poster with your child and turn it in at the start of your child’s scheduled week.

12. Curriculum Please visit he Pl Please visit the Ohio Department of Education Homework • Each night your child will be given homework. The homework will be follow-up activities of what we are doing in class. At the end of the week we will send home a homework letter. The letter will have all the assignments for the week. • Each child is required to purchase a take home folder. This folder is used for the students to bring work and other information to and from school. In the folder there are 2 pockets: Return to school Keep at home

13. Language Arts/Reading We use the Rigby Reading Series. Each week your child will: • Read stories based on individual reading level • Work with weekly vocabulary words and sight words • Build phonemic awareness • Complete worksheets that work on phonics skills, sight words, spelling and comprehension • Vocabulary/comprehension assessment • spelling test (starting in second quarter)

14. Math • We use the Everyday Mathematics Program. Each week your child will: • Work on daily activities in workbook that will be kept in school • Complete hands on exploration activities • Participate in different partner and group games to reinforce numerous skills • Complete different problem solving skills in math journal

15. Math • HomeLinks- this is a journal that will be kept at home. It has all the homework assignments that reinforce what we are doing in school. On the top of the page it will say which unit we are in and what lesson. (Ex. 4.2) • The weekly homework note says H.L. 2.5., please tear out the page in the book that says 2.5, have your child complete it, and then turn it in the next day (in the take home folder). Please keep these books in a safe place at home! If for some reason it gets lost or ruined, one can be purchased from the office for about 10 dollars.

16. Handwriting Our goal is for the students to use lined paper correctly to form letters and numbers. We will use three lined paper. The top line, midline(dotted) and bottom line. At this time, reversals are very common. When we see a reversal, we should just ask the student if there is something wrong with that letter. We will encourage to self correct. If they can’t do so, we will use visuals to help guide them. A handwriting sample is attached to this packet. You can use it at home to encourage proper letter formation.

17. Writing We will complete a writing portfolio based on themes covered in class. Students will learn how to write a story using phonemic awareness and the ability to blend sounds into words. The students will write in complete sentences.

18. Science • We will be using Harcourt School Publishing. The students will: • participate in hands on experiments • complete activity sheets • learn vocabulary • answer open ended questions orally and written

19. Social Studies Using multiple resources the students will: • learn vocabulary • study holidays • discuss how and why things change • map skills (direction, map key, land types…ect.) • American symbols • natural resources • citizenship qualities • social skills

20. Let’s Have a Great Year! Thank you all for coming and I look forward to inspiring excellence for all the students.