Welcome to 3rd Grade at Austin Elementary! Thank you for attending Curriculum Night!

1. Welcome to 3rd Grade at Austin Elementary! Thank you for attending Curriculum Night! http://safeshare.tv/w/UGJzYBeKER

2. The Third Grade Team 3A – Tim Wu 3B – Casey Griffith 3C – Heather Naragon 3D – Kaitie Moore 3E – Kathleen Trueblood

3. The ABC’s of Third Grade

4. Attendance Many 3rd grade learning activities are group oriented and involve interaction with classmates. Therefore, it is next to impossible to recreate these activities at home. Please view school as a priority and see to it that your child attends every day - except in cases of illness or emergency. Students must be in their seats no later than 7:50, or they will be marked tardy.

5. Behavior We follow the Great Expectations model. We believe in positive reinforcement, as well as appropriate, related consequences. Please check your child’s agenda/planner every night and sign. Check our websites for more information on Great Expectations! Birthdays Birthday parties are not held at school. Your child may bring cookies or cupcakes to share with the class for an afternoon snack as long as they are store bought. For summer birthdays, you may bring a treat on your child’s half birthday. Please bring individual or pre-cut treats. Please drop off the birthday treats in the office no later than noon. (NO cakes, ice cream, favors, or balloons)

6. Communication Please be sure to check your child’s Mustang folder for important papers and notes. Please sign their agenda/planner nightly. This is our daily communication. Please send lunch money in a LABELED envelope. Conferences Parent – Teacher conferences will be held during the month of October. Teachers will be sending out an email with a sign up via www.signupgenius.com Please be respectful of our time. If you need to cancel please communicate that with us.

7. Dismissal Students are dismissed at 3:05. All students should be picked up no later than 3:15. You must show your pink card in order to pick your child up. No exceptions! Please send a note if your child is to go home a different way than his/her normal schedule, or if they will be picked up earlier than 3:05. If your transportation plan changes, please call the office no later than 2:00, otherwise we cannot guarantee that we will receive the message in time.

8. E-Time We will have E-Time every Friday morning until our Clusters begin. During E-Time, we will explore students’ interests and talents. Sometimes we will ask for students to bring items from home that correlate with their interests.

9. Field Trips Third grade will participate in at least one field trip this year. Permission slips must be returned in order for your child to attend the trip. Students are encouraged to wear a school shirt on every field trip. Parents who want to attend must have a background check on file. These need to be completed each school year.

10. GTi Testing All students will be tested in third grade during the first week of November. Grading Third grade does not assign numerical grades. In order to give a more detailed assessment of student performance, we use standards-based report cards. (MS, AS, IPS)

11. HomeFUN Reading is the foundation of all learning. We want to develop a life long zest for reading. Your child should be reading for 20 minutes on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Spelling words for the week will be listed in your child’s planner/agenda. Spelling homework will be Wednesdays and Thursdays. Math homework will be Mondays and Tuesdays. Homework will be due the next day.

12. Illness Please keep your child home if he/she is sick. It is important that we not pass germs around to each other. *If your child is absent, you have two school days to provide the office with a handwritten note for the absence to be excused. Internet For important information about events at school, please be sure to check out the Austin Elementary website at: www.coppellisd.com/austin

13. Just so you know…. There has been a change in Student Council this year. It now will include representatives from 3rd-5th grade. There will be more information to come.

14. Kindness In third grade, kind and respectful behavior is expected from everyone at all times. We are also on the lookout for VIP behavior. You never know who has those tickets!

15. Lunch Lunch is from 11:15-12:15 on Monday-Thursday. On Fridays, We have lunch 11:20-11:50. If you would like to eat lunch with your child we invite you to join us on Family Friday! If your child forgets their lunch, you may drop it off in the office and it will be placed on the “Forgotten Lunch Table”. Your child will look for it there.

16. Mustang Mutual Mustang mutual is a bank that visits our school once a month on Friday mornings. Students have an opportunity to open a bank account to start saving for their future. For more information, contact your child’s homeroom teacher.

17. Newsletters Newsletters will be sent out weekly. Please read the newsletter for important information about what we are doing at school.

18. Outdoor Recess Students may bring 1 piece of outdoor equipment. Please be mindful as there are many students playing on the playground and our biggest concern is their safety. Items not allowed are baseball bats, baseballs and hula hoops.

19. PBL (Project/Problem Based Learning) In a nutshell, students learn important content through PBL by investigating questions, generating original ideas, and working collaboratively to produce products that demonstrate what they have learned.

20. Quick & Quiet Hello As you volunteer in our classroom, we will urge your child to acknowledge you with a “quick and quiet” hello wave. It is important for them to greet you, but remain involved in class activities. Thank you for your cooperation.

21. Reading A large portion of your child’s day will include participation in small group instruction and Daily 5/Café stations.

22. Snack We will have a “Working Snack” time each day. Your child may bring one small, healthy snack. If your child is in a “Nut Free Class”, please do not send a snack with any kind of nut. Students may also bring a water bottle (with a pop-top lid), but juice and soda are not allowed during snack time.

23. Tardy Policy Students should be in their classroom by 7:50am. Arriving after this time causes students to lose valuable instructional time – and it is extremely disruptive to the rest of the class. By ensuring that your child is at school on time each day, you are helping them to become more responsible and timely citizens. Students who are not in their seats by 7:50 must report to the office for a tardy pass. Students with 1-3 tardies will receive a verbal warning. Students with 4 tardies will receive an office referral. Students will 5 tardies will have detention during recess.

24. Update Portal If your child is absent, please be sure to send a note when they return. E-mails will not be accepted. ** If we do not receive a note within 2 days, the absence will remain “unexcused” and cannot be excused.**

25. Volunteers We love volunteers! Moms, dads, grandparents….look for information on how you can help in our classroom!

26. Water Bottles Your child may bring a water bottle to school as long as it has a pop-up top. Water bottles without a pop-up top are easily spilled and will not be permitted during instruction time. Please be sure to label all water bottles. Writers Workshop Your child will get to experience the stages of publishing stories this year as we learn about the writing process during Writer’s Workshop.

27. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ We are excited to work with you and your child this year! Please be sure that your child gets plenty of Zzzz’s each night because we have a lot of exciting activities awaiting them each day!