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Friday, October 16 – First Quarter Book report is due
Friday, October 23 – Flat Stanley letter and envelope (with stamp) due
Friday, November 27 – Flat Stanley should return home to students
Friday, December 15 – Flat Stanley posters due
Friday, January 8 - 2nd Quarter - Sandwich book report due
Friday, March 11 – 3rd Quarter Book report recipe due
Friday, May 27 - Final book report due
The reading curriculum is broken up into six different themes.There are about 3-4 stories in each theme.
During the Language Arts period, the children will either be with me, doing seatwork, or will be doing Accelerated Reader (AR). Each group will be about 30 minutes.
At the end of this section, I have provided the AR guidelines and sample questions to use when you read with your child at home. Students should be reading a minimum of 15-20 minutes each night.
Once a story is complete, a reading assessment will beadministered to the students. The students will also take an AR test on the story to check their comprehension.
There will be one book report due each quarter. The book mustbe in the student’s zone of proximal development (ZPD). The due dates and the assignment are given below:
Quarter 1: Due on October 16 – The student must read a fantasy book in their ZPD and do a book report. I will provide the form for the book report. The book can’t be a book that he or she has read and/or AR tested on before this date.
Quarter 2: Due on January 8 – The student must read a realistic fiction book in their ZPD and will do a sandwich book report. The information is at the end of the handbook.
Quarter 3: Due on March 11– The student must read a mysterybook in their ZPD and do the recipe book report. See the form and instructions in the Project Section.
Quarter 4: Due on May 27 – The student must read a biography in their ZPD and write a letter to a friend about the book you read. Explain why you liked or did not like the book. Follow the directions found on the rubric in the project section.
Accelerated Reader Guidelines
1. The children should be reading at home for at least 15-20 minutes each night. Each child will receive a bookmark where they are to record the books they haveread. A signature from their parent or guardian is alsorequired so that we know they are ready to take the AR test.
2. Children should turn in a book they have finished, along with their bookmark, in the basket in the morning.
3. Bookmarks should be filled in by the parent and returned, with a signature, every day.
4. The student’s grade will go on the bookmark for the books they have read at home.
5. Children should read the book at least two times before taking a quiz (unless it is a Chapter book).
6. TOPS reports will be given out during the week and will be put in the student’s homework folder for you to review. This
will give you an indication of where they are.
Homework folders will be given to students on Monday of each
week and will contain their homework assignments for the week.
Each day I will send home a Communication log which may
contain comments or questions. There is also a place for your
comments/questions. Please make sure that you sign them each
night so that I know you have seen them.
Agendas will have their homework written in them each day.
Please review these each night and initial that you have seen them. The
homework will also be posted on the school website so that you may see
what is being assigned during the week. The website is:
http://kathy_weslowski.myteachersite.org/teacher/site/.
When a student is absent, the work that they missed will be
placed in a folder. The student should take the folder home,
along with the books they will need, and return the assignments
within three days of returning to school.
Please send a note in with your child describing the reason
for their absence so that I can forward the information to the
office.
Following extended absences due to illness or other special
circumstances, homework due dates will be evaluated on
an individual basis.
Snacks/Lunch
We will have a snack every morning. Please send a healthy snack with your child every day such as pretzels, crackers, grapes, etc.
Please do not send in snacks that require a spoon or fork. I do not have extra in the classroom and there is a possibility that it might spill. Those types of snacks are fine for lunchtime but not to eat in the classroom.
Your child may bring water bottles to school but please make sure they don’t have anything but water in them.
For lunch, please make sure that you send lunch items that do not need to be heated in the microwave. We are unable to heat up these items. Please also send the utensils that they need to eat their lunch.
On the first day of school, the class will work together to come up with rules for the classroom. Once we agree on them, everyone willsign them.
1. Raise your hand to speak or for permission to get out of your seat.
2. Keep your hands, feet, and objects to yourself.
3. Keep the classroom and school clean.
4. Try your best.
5. Be kind to each other.
Behavior will be monitored and communicated to the parent(s) by way of a color-coded system. Each color coordinates with a behavior/consequence.
Purple: They had an extremely good day. They will receive a specialtreat for getting on purple.
Green: acceptable behaviorYellow: warning (rule violation)Red: removal from the classroom, a discipline note and phone call Home.
If a student gets 3 red checks in one week, they will be issued a ½ hour detention.
Daily Behavior Logs
A behavior report will be sent home in the homework folder. Thisreport must be checked, signed, and returned on a daily basis.
The daily behavior report works like this:
Every child begins the day with a green card. Throughout the day,a child may be asked to pull cards depending on behavior.
Usually cards are pulled for behaviors such as continued talking,not keeping hands to self, not lining up, and/or not followingdirections. Other behaviors that interfere with learning/teachingwill also result in pulling a card.
They can also go to purple this year. That means that their behavior was above that of other students in the class. If a studentis on purple, they will receive a special prize. At the end of the day, whatever card is showing will be indicated on the behavior report in the form of a green, yellow, or red check along with a brief explanation.
If a child accumulates 3 or more red checks in one week, then a ½ hour detention will be issued.
Dear Parents,
Over the summer and in class we read a book called Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. In this story a little boy named Stanley is flattened by a bulletin board. In his new “flattened” state, he has manyadventures. One of Stanley’s adventures begins with Stanley traveling in an envelope.
We will be doing a project based on this book. This project will teach students many things from geography to how to write a friendly letter. The students will get a picture of Flat Stanley to color and will need to write a letter and send it to someone they know. They will ask the person to keep Flat Stanley for about 4 - 6 weeks. The person they send it to will be asked to keep track of the places they take him and the things that they do together. At the end of the four to six weeks, the students will make a poster showing all of the things that Flat Stanley did on his trip and share them with the class. We, as a class, will also be keeping track of the places where he has gone.
On the following page you will find the due dates for each part of the project and the last page contains the poster project guidelines.
Friday, October 23 - Bring in the letter that you will send to the person Flat Stanley will be visiting, a correctly addressed envelope, and a stamp. Be sure that it includes all of the parts to a friendly letter (heading, greeting, body, closing, signature).
Friday, November 27 - Flat Stanley should return home to the children by this date so that they can start putting their posters together.
Friday, December 15- The final Flat Stanley posters are due.
The children should create a poster that includes their Flat Stanley and the information they have received on his adventures. How the children set up the poster is up to them. They may include the postcards, pictures, etc. that they receive. Also, somewhere on the poster should be a few paragraphs that tell about the place Flat Stanley visited and some of the important or interesting things that they learned about that place.
Name ___________________________________________
Date ____________________________________________
Book ____________________________________________
Flat Stanley Letter (heading, greeting, body, closing, signature) /25
Project:
Pictures from state visited /25
Information from state visited /25
Oral Presentation /25
Grade /100 ____
Grading Rubric for Book Report
Name ___________________________________________
Date ____________________________________________
Book ____________________________________________
Title, author, name, date /10
Favorite Character /5
Character description /5
Favorite Character Sentence /2
Two sentences about book /6
Setting /2
Picture of story (beginning, middle, end) /30
Grammar /10
Spelling /10
Punctuation /10
Capitalization /10
Grade /100 ____
Name ___________________________________________
Date ____________________________________________
Book ____________________________________________
Bread (Title, author, illustrator, name) /10 Tomato (Describe the book’s setting) /10
Lettuce (Summary) /15
Cheese (Part that made you happy, why) /10
Meat (description of main character) /10
Onion (Part of book that was sweet or sad) /10
Bread (what you liked or didn’t like about book) /15
Grammar /5
Spelling /5
Punctuation /5
Capitalization /5
Grade /100 ____
Write a letter to a friend about the book you read. The letter should include all of the parts of a letter (heading (date), greeting, body, closing, signature). Explain why you liked or did not like the book and if you think that they should read thebook or not and why.
Grading Rubric for Letter
Name ___________________________________________
Date ____________________________________________
Book ____________________________________________
Letter /50
Grammar /10
Spelling /10
Punctuation /10
Capitalization /10
Presentation /10
Grade /100 ____
Final Book Report
I have read and understand the information contained inthis handbook.
_____________________ _________________Parent/Guardian Signature Date
_____________________ _________________ Student Signature Date
