1 st Grade Back to School Night Mrs . Haight Miss Hansen Miss Tobin

1. 1stGrade Back to School Night Mrs. Haight Miss Hansen Miss Tobin

2. 1st Grade Fun

3. 1st Grade Fun

4. Success in First Grade Child Parent Teacher

5. 1st Grade Curriculum • Phonics • Spelling • Handwriting • Reading • English • Writer’s Workshop • Math • Religion • Science • Social Studies *All units of study will be posted by quarter on our website.

6. Routines are the backbone of daily classroom life. • Starting off our school day on the right foot is important and sets the tone for the entire day! • Routines give the students a sense of success. • Students know what’s expected of them and learn how to do certain tasks on their own. • Routines are carefully taught, modeled, and established. • Routines allow the teachers to spend more time in meaningful instruction. • Set routines at home as well.

7. Arrival Procedure • The students should arrive to school between 8:10-8:25am to greet each other, hand in their homework, complete their morning work and get ready for the school day. • Each child shares a locker. Check to see that your child’s backpack will fit inside the locker. No backpacks with wheels are allowed.

8. Dismissal Procedure • We will be out at the statue around 2:45pm. Please meet us there in our designated spot or in the car line. • If your child is going home a different way in the afternoon be sure to let the office know in the morning. • If you are planning on sending an email please do so the night before or first thing in the morning.

9. Classroom Management • What Would Jesus Do? • We have a set of classroom rules that the students thought of themselves that helps create a safe, happy, and positive place for learning. • We model and encourage students to make good choices and praise them often for doing so.

11. Classroom Management Homework • Homework needs to be completed every night by the child but guided by a parent. • Homework should take about 10-15 per night. • Please use pencil. • Only complete one night of homework at a time. Do not go ahead. • If time allows each night also involve your child in flash card review of their addition and subtraction facts, practice of their sight words, and reading together.

12. Corrected Work Envelopes • Each Friday their corrected work envelope will be sent home with all the work from the week. • Take the weekend to look through their work and go over some concepts that they may need extra practice with. • Sign the envelope, write down any questions, comments or concerns you have and return it each Monday. • The work can stay at home.

13. Lower School Uniform Policy

14. Reading Assessment • Assessments take place 3x a year; beginning, middle, and end of the year. (more often if needed) • The DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) program assesses their comprehension, vocabulary and fluency. • Raz-Kids at least once 1x a week (focus on 1 story) • Listen, read aloud/record, take the quiz • Listen to your child as he/she reads aloud • Fluency: smoothly, stopping at periods, reading with feeling and emotion • Comprehension: understanding what is happening in the story, (main idea, characters, setting, problem, solution) • Vocabulary: understanding words in the story and being able to use them in a sentence

15. Flexible Small Group Learning • Small group instruction will be used throughout the year in all curriculum areas • Students will all be working on the same concepts but doing a variety of different activities that fit their needs and levels • Allows chance for enrichment activities, extra reinforcement of concepts and smaller student/teacher ratio

16. The Daily 5 A structure that will help students develop the daily habits of reading, writing, and working with peers that will lead to a lifetime of independent literacy. Read to Self Work on Writing Read to Someone Word Work Listen to Reading

17. Ms. Tobin’s Responsibilities • Assists with arrival and dismissal procedures • Rotates back and forth between classrooms during the day, especially during Reading, Writing, and Math • Assists with whole class instruction, works one-on-one with students, and leads small group lessons • Facilitates and engages in spiritual religion lessons with both classes

18. Envision 2.0 GCS adopted a new Math program called Envision Math.  The lessons are comprised of a think and share (where students collaborate at their tables to discuss the warm up problem), a guided practice (the lesson), an independent practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. Math vocabulary word card will be sent home at the beginning of each chapter. Please keep these at home and review. Every night a page labeled "Homework & Practice" will be sent home for homework. Both sides of this sheet are to be completed and returned the next day. The sheet will usually correspond with the lesson taught that day, or be a review from the lesson the day prior. At times, we also assign IXL for homework when the skills correlate to what we're learning. 

19. Math • We are emphasizing the importance of the students knowing their math facts. • This concept needs to be practiced and reinforced at home. • By the end of 1st grade they should be able to add 2 or 3 numbers equaling up to 20. • They should also know how to subtract with numbers up to 20. • The students will be tested on their addition and subtraction facts every month. • Our goal is to have the students know these facts off the top of their heads. • Students may at first need to use number lines or their fingers but eventually they need to know the facts without assistance.

20. Math Our suggestions: • Purchase flash cards so you can practice daily with your child. • Start with adding and subtracting by 1 first. (ex. 1+1=? 2+1=?, 1-1=?, 2-1=?) • Then increase to adding and subtracting by two and so on as your child is understanding the concept. • Check out free apps for ipads at home.

21. Technology • Technology is an integral part of our first grade curriculum. • We use the Smartboard in our classrooms every day and have 2 ipads for the students to use. • Technology will be used throughout the curriculum to support what is being taught in all subject areas. • Websites that we frequently use are interactive math, phonics, and reading games. • We encourage you and your child to log onto IXL to help practice math concepts. • We will be using Raz-Kids to aid in your child’s reading ability.

22. Birthdays • Casual Dress Day! • Please email a few days before your child’s birthday so we can set up a time to celebrate • All snacks should be NUT FREE • Birthday snacks should be dropped off at arrival time and we will celebrate during our regular snack period in the afternoon.

23. GCS Website

24. The End • We look forward to a great year with your children!! • Please feel free to contact us throughout the year with any questions and/or concerns. • Mrs. Haight: dhaight@gcsct.org • Ms. Hansen: chansen@gcsct.org