Dear Parents,

Welcome to Back to School!  It is my sincere wish to make this school year a wonderful learning experience for your child.  I am taking this opportunity to tell you about what we will be doing in class this school year.  I hope to answer a few of the questions you may have at this time.  Please feel free to contact me if you should have any further questions.

Labels:  Please label all of your child's belongings. (e.g. jackets and hats)  This will help avoid confusion and assist in finding lost articles.

Absences:  Please phone the office on the day your child is absent.  You must send a note when your child returns to class.  The note should state the reason for the absence.  If you must take your child out of class early, please check in with the office before coming to the classroom.  I cannot release a child without permission from the office.

Newsletter:  There will be occasional classroom newsletters to fill you in on what is happening in our class.

Homework:  Homework packets will be sent home on Mondays and returned on  Fridays. For more information please refer to the homework policy.

Organization:  We will be using S.T.A.R. (Students Taking Awesome Responsiblity) Binders to help your students organize their work and other important school information. 

Reading:  The Text “Open Court” will be the language arts series for our reading program.  This is a very comprehensive program in which I will be emphasizing phonics (the sounds that letters make), comprehension, and much much more.  For more specific information please refer to the California content standards for language arts.

Writing:  In writing, I will be stressing sentence structure, capitalization and basic punctuation skills.  We will also study the complete writing process.  For more specific information please refer to the California content standards for language arts.

Math:  Math will cover basic addition and subtraction with math drills.  We will learn to tell time and apply our math skills to counting money.  Your student will learn place values from 0 to 99 and how to read and print numbers from 1 to 100.  For more specific information please refer to the California content standards for mathematics.

Spelling:  The children will learn basic spelling rules and words to increase their vocabulary. In the beginning of the school year spelling will be incorporated into our daily language arts program.  For more specific information please refer to the California content standards for language arts.

Handwriting: Students will be taught to print using the D’Nealian (modern manuscript)  Method.

Science, Social Studies, Art, Music and PE:  These topics will be integrated into our daily curriculum.   For more specific information please refer to the California content standards for science, social studies, physical education and the arts.

This is going to be a GREAT year!