Classroom Policies

I hope that this handbook helps answer any questions that you may have about our room! If you have any questions at all please feel free to contact me. You may see some of this information repeated throughout the year in notes sent home from school.

Birthdays	Birthday treats are welcome on your child’s birthday, or another day if you wish. Please do not bring drinks. Remember to send in any "materials" necessary for your child's snack (paper plates, napkins, forks, etc.). Finger foods are best! Summer birthdays are celebrated on designated days in May. Do not send birthday invitations to school with your child or yourself to be passed out unless the entire class (boys and girls) is included. Also, neither the office nor I can give out addresses or phone numbers of students in the class.
Recess	Weather permitting, we will have recess every day. Please dress your child appropriately for the temperature of the day. In the winter, we do go outside if the temperature is above 20 degrees (including wind chill).
Sunshine at Home	The First Grades use the Sunshine at Home program. This includes a small paperback book and an activity sheet. These will be sent home on Thursdays and need to be back by Tuesday of each week. Your child may or may not be able to read these books at first, so just read it to them. You may choose at least two activities to do on the sheet that comes with it. We will start this in October and there will be more information on it at Curriculum Night
*Book Orders*	Book orders will be sent home frequently throughout the year. There is NO obligation for your family to purchase books. However, book orders are a great opportunity to add to your library at home and they usually are reasonably priced.
*Daily Work*	The Math series we will be using is Everyday Math. We have a journal at school to work in. The pages are not perforated, so a math page will not come home each day. The ‘Homelinks’ that come home during the week will give you an idea of what we are doing at school. The Language Arts series was new in 2004. It consists of vocabulary words, spelling words, Guided Reading and decodable books as well as leveled books. There is a student book and language handbook also. The spelling words will be sent home on Monday and there will be a test on Friday. The word cards for each book will be sent home when we start the book.
Money	When sending any money to school with your child, please put it in an envelope with your child’s name and room code (1ST) on the outside. Many times, children either lose their money or lay it on my desk without my knowledge and I don't know whose it is.
*After School Arrangements*	Please make sure your child knows how he/she is to get home each day. If there should be a change in plans, please write a note to me.
Illness	Just a reminder that if your child has had a fever, he/she needs to be 24 hours fever free before returning to school. Also no medications may be given at school without a doctor’s permission. (This includes cough drops.)