Welcome Parents!Ms. Winfield,

Mrs. Nikolakakis, Mrs. Koransky, and

Mr. Perkins

Welcome to First Grade!

Tonight we will talk about everything you need to know about First Grade!

● Classroom policies

● Classroom rules

● Classroom procedures

We encourage you to discuss your child’s activities with him/her every day. Your support at home helps reinforce what we do at school. Please be sure to sign up for parent-teacher conferences and upcoming events.

Absences & Our Schedule● Please call the school to report absences (708) 524-3095

Daily Schedule:Arrival: 7:55 amIn classroom: 8:00 am

LunchM,T, Th, F 11:00 – 11:55 amW 10:30 –

11:25 amDismissal

M,T, Th, F 2:55 pmW 1:55 pm

Special Schedule

Winfield Nikolakakis Perkins/ Koransky

M - Music

T- Spanish & Library

W- Spanish & P.E

TH- Music & Art

F- Spanish

M - Music

T - Spanish

W - Art, Spanish

TH - Library, P.E.

F - Music, Spanish

M - Art

T - Spanish

W - Spanish, Music, Library

TH -

F - PE, Music, Spanish

Medications

If your child needs to take any medications, including cough syrup and/or cough drops, please deliver all medications along with a doctor’s note to the office.

Our school nurse, Mrs. Powers, or the secretary, Mrs. Bodzewski will dispense your child’s medication.

Students are not to keep cough drops or any other type of medicine in their lunches or lockers.

Food Allergies

We have several students in first grade with food allergies, including allergies to nuts, eggs and milk.

All classes need to send fruits and/or vegetables for your child to eat as their morning snack. Other snacks will have to wait for lunch.

BirthdaysStudents are welcome to celebrate their birthdays with the

class!

● Students may bring a small prize for each student. This may include: pencils, erasers, stickers, bubbles, chalk, etc.

● The student’s birthday is celebrated in the classroom and by the school through the daily announcement.

Curriculum – Language ArtsReading and WritingAll of District 97 uses the McMillan/McGraw-Hill Treasures program. This program is a research-based, comprehensive Reading/Language Arts program that gives educators the resources they need to help all students succeed. It has high-quality literature coupled with explicit instruction and ample practices to ensure that every student grows as a life-long reader and writer. Components: comprehension, vocabulary, phonemic awareness, phonics/spelling, fluency, grammar and writing.

Literature: Fiction and nonfiction selections help build a love of reading. Includes time-honored classics, contemporary nonfiction and multicultural selections.

Technology: Stories are available online, along with interactive games and animated comprehension activities to help build successful readers.

Curriculum – Language Arts

PenmanshipOur handwriting program is called Handwriting without Tears. It focuses on breaking down letters and numbers into manageable parts using a multi-sensory approach.

http://www.hwtears.com/hwt/parents

SpellingSpelling words for weekly tests will correspond with the phonics skills covered during Treasures instruction. There will be a pretest each Monday and a final test on Friday. Students earning perfect score on their pretest will receive challenge words to study for their post test. Students who get every word wrong on their pretest will receive a abbreviated version of the spelling list.

Curriculum – Language ArtsHigh Frequency WordsHigh Frequency Words (HFW) are words we want students to be able to read immediately by sight without having to decode (sound it out). Students will be tested on these words during each trimester. A list of HFW is located on the table. Please pick it up on your way out so you can help your child study throughout the year. Also, we will be sending home a HFW calendar for this trimester at the end of this week. You child can then work on a few words each week.

DifferentiationTreasures uses small group lessons to target students’ needs, hands-on activities and leveled readers (approaching level, on level, beyond level) provide instruction in comprehension and vocabulary. We also use Daily 5 to differentiate student needs and levels, as well as to develop independent readers and self assessors.

MathDistrict 97 is now in its second year of using the Common Core State Standards to guide math instruction. A detailed description of these standards can be found here:

http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/1/introduction

This site has links to all the standards that will be covered. All of the standards fall into four categories:

· Operations & Algebraic Thinking

· Number & Operations in Base Ten

· Measurement & Data

· GeometryStudents will take a pretest before every unit to determine their instructional needs. Students across the three first grade classes will be placed with a group of students that have similar instructional needs for each unit. We will be using the My Math program along with other materials to teach each standard. Topics will be covered in this order:Trimester 1: Measurement, Counting, and Data, Addition and Subtraction within 10Trimester 2: Addition and Subtraction within 20, 2-digit Place ValueTrimester 3: Addition and Subtraction within 100, Geometry and Time

Social Studies

The focus of the Social Studies program is to help students make connections between themselves, the community they live in, and the world around them.

The five units to be taught are:

●People Everywhere (family, school and community)

●Where We Live (geography)

●World of Work (economics)

●Everything Changes (history)

●Good Citizens (government and citizenship)

Each unit incorporates reading, discussions, writing and projects.

Science

The three Science units that will be covered this year are:

●Organisms

●Solids and Liquids

●Weather

The programs we use offer an inquiry-based, hands on approach that focus on the process of discovery.

Students are encouraged to ask questions and discuss with each other as they explore and learn about these topics. Students will gather evidence, develop ideas and make inferences based upon their observations.

Homework● A homework grid will come home every two weeks. Your child

will be required to complete 7 out of 10 activities on the grid. At the end of two weeks, the grid will be due that Friday. Please initial by the activities your child completed and attach any work your child did to be graded.

● Check your child’s folder daily for math homework. Each lesson has a corresponding homework assignment that extends the lesson for that day. Sometimes lessons take more than one day, so homework will not be assigned until the entire lesson has been covered. Please be sure to check your child’s folder for math homework daily and don’t hesitate to contact us at cnikolakakis@op97.org , tkoransky@op97.org , sperkins@op97.org pwinfield@op97.org with any questions regarding the homework.

Star Student of the Week

On Friday, one child will be chosen to be the Star of the Week.

They will arrive home with a bag full of goodies. There will be a folder in the bag to instruct you on what to do for the following week.

Please return materials as they are specified in the letter. This is a very special week for your child and we want them to be the highlight of the week.

Classroom Management

Students can earn Tiger Tickets and Tiger Heads for following these Hatch Habits:

● Be Here, Be Ready

● Be Respectful

● Be Safe

Classroom Incentives

Students will receive various incentives for modeling great behavior on an individual level. Throughout the year, incentives may change to keep the students motivated and on-task. Some of these incentives may include sticker charts, opportunities to win small prizes from our treasure chest, earning team points, and earning tiger tickets.

VolunteersIf you would like to volunteer to help in our classroom, please let us know!

Volunteers will typically be helping students with various learning center activities, reading with small groups, doing flash cards, helping with bulletin boards, laminating, cutting/preparing paper for class projects, helping students with assignments in class, etc.

We appreciate any time you are able to spend helping with our class.

Report Card InformationThe report card aligns with the Common Core State Standards which are used to drive instruction.

The standards for each subject will be assessed on whether students are exceeding proficient (EP), proficient (PR), approaching proficient (AP) or not proficient (NP).

Let’s Have aGreat Year!