Your child’s regular attendance at school means a great deal to their successes this year. Much of our learning is experiential and interactive. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to “make up” work at home. Please do your best to make their learning and school a priority, and ensure that your child attends every day, except in cases of illness or emergency.
If your child is absent and you have not previously notified the office (by emailing weattendance@nsd.org, or by prior written note), the office will call you each day that your child is gone.
Your child has a daily plan of how they will get home. If those plans change (including someone different than normal picking them up), I must be notified in writing (this is kept on file in the office). Six- and seven-year olds are notorious for planning play dates that sound very convincing without adults being “in-the-know.” So, no, I don’t believe them when they tell me they shouldn’t ride the bus – they are having a playdate with Sara (and oh, yes, their parents know). Ha!
If you forget to send a note, or plans change mid-day, send me (and cc our attendance) an email – if I get the email, I will reply briefly, just confirming my understanding of the plan. If you don’t hear back from me, assume I did NOT receive the email, and you should call the office at 425.408.5900 and notify them.
The Art Docent is a volunteer position that involves preparing a monthly or bimonthly project for the class. The lessons are pre-organized in a program that highlights different art forms/artists each time. The docent will prepare the materials (available in the Publishing Center, on school grounds), present the lesson to the class and lead the project (usually with assistance from a co-art docent). It is not necessary to have an artistic background to be an art docent.
It is ideal that your child brings a backpack to school every day. However, if they forget their backpack at home, please do not feel the need to bail them out. A big part of this year is learning responsibility!
At Wellington, we are Respectful, Responsible, and Safe. The Wellington Way!
In our classroom, we are respectful, we always try our best, and we are a team! These three guidelines help us get through our day-to-day. As far as discipline, the biggest part of that, to me, is prevention. If students are clear about what is expected of them, I am able to easily praise those positive behaviors. They all want attention; it’s just a matter of how they achieve that attention.
Personally, I do not like negative consequences, but occasionally, we get to that point. If/when that happens, it looks like this:
First, a gentle reminder
Second, an immediate and private conversation with me
Next, a written explanation from the child to the parent explaining what happened and how they plan to make better choices in the future
Finally, a Behavior Reminder that goes home for the parent to sign and return the next school day (in rare, but necessary circumstances, the Behavior Reminder could be an immediate course of action – ie: intentional physical harm to another student).
Note: if a child receives three Behavior Reminders for the same or similar infraction, on that third Behavior Reminder, the Principal becomes involved.
Our school day is from 9:10-3:40. Playground supervision starts as early as 8:50 (so you can drop your child off at that point). Wednesday early release is 2:10.
For detailed information, follow this link to our Birthday Celebrations page from our Curriculum Night handbook.
In our classroom, the birthday child is celebrated in many different ways! They get to sit in one of our two very special birthday rocking chairs all day, they wear a special large birthday sticker, birthday bracelet and a crown. They get a fancy new pencil, parents/grandparents are welcome to join us for lunch, the birthday child gets to make their own crayons in our crayon making machine, they get to pick a gift from our birthday treasure chest, a personalized birthday card signed by their whole class, and they get a special birthday certificate with our birthday chant sung to them. Oh, and it’s the only time they get to intentionally jump off the “tall” stool and fly for as far as they’re able (it’s like recess privileges in the classroom)!
If you/your child would like to bring in a fun "treat" to share, great! Some families do this, some don’t. If you'd like to, some suggestions are: fun pencils/erasers for each child, a bouncy ball for each child, a dinosaur toy for each child, a lei for each child... you get the idea. The dollar store is a GREAT resource for these finds. Some families, either in lieu or, or in addition to “treats” for the kids, donate a new or gently used book to the classroom library. We have special boxes in our classroom library designated for Birthday Books. Often times, the parent will write some special message in the front cover of the book, commemorating the event (it's super fun when I get younger siblings and they find the birthday book donated from their older sibling's birthday some years prior). It’s extra fun if the book is wrapped so the child gets to unwrap it in front of the whole class. Depending on the length of the book, we’ll read it that day, or over the course of a few days.
If your child has a summer birthday, they will get to pick their own special day in June – everything will be just as it would be if it were their real birthday – they even get to choose if they want us to sing “Happy UnBirthday” or “Happy Birthday.”
Scholastic Book Orders will come home monthly. They take typically two weeks for delivery. This is a great opportunity to purchase books to add to your child’s personal collection at very reasonable prices. Caution: (I talk to the kids about this every year, too) Scholastic sells great books. They also sell overpriced, cheaply made toys. Steer clear of most of the toys. They typically don’t last, and you could have spent that $12 on 6 books, rather than one small book and a toy that breaks.
To visit the Scholastic site at any time (your order will be processed with our next classroom order), go to the Scholastic website. Our classroom code is H42W9.
Breakfast is served in the kitchen before school. Kids can eat down there, or outside on the patio.
Lunch is at 11:35. If you would ever like to join your child for lunch (like on their birthday), please let me know in advance. When your child is buying lunch, they need to come to school knowing if they are buying A, B, or C lunch. For each month’s menu, please go to the district lunch website, here.
We do not have a microwave or refrigerator available for student use.
If your child will ever be buying breakfast, lunch, or milk at school, it is preferable that they have money in their Bank-A-Meal account. You can send in a check or cash (preferably a check) to school to be applied to your child’s account. It takes 24-48 hours to show up in the system, so don’t fret if you send in money and it takes a couple of days for you to stop getting automated “overage” calls.
Costs are as follows:
Breakfast: $2.75 Lunch: $4.50 Milk Only: $0.75
The simplest way to maintain your sanity with school lunches is by going to LINQConnect. If you are interested in applying for free & reduced breakfast/lunch for your child, please visit this page to download the application (or let me know and I'd be happy to print one for you).
Additionally, I strongly suggest that even if you don’t think your child will ever need to buy school breakfast, lunch, or milk, you still put a simple $5.00 in their account. Accounts roll over through 12th grade, so your money won’t be lost. You never know when they’ll forget their lunch in the car or on the bus, when they’ll decide that cheese pizza sounds better than the pb&j you made, when they’ll trip and dump the contents of their lunchbox on the floor, when they’ll see a friend having cereal before school and decide to join them, etc… Trust me, I’ve seen it all.
At Wellington, we typically have two, roughly hour-long, parties each school year. Halloween and Valentine’s Day. I will set these up with our Room Rep, and will solicit many helpers as the time nears.
Please dress your child for painting, outdoor play, and dirt on a daily basis. In other words, we get messy in first grade. If your child has open-toed shoes/flip flops, they will not be allowed to play in the big toy area that day (wood chips). While kids need to be kids, some of the more major injuries, we try to avoid. I once had a child who tripped on her sandal, hit her forehead, and wound up with stitches.
Please label EVERYTHING. You would be amazed at how much we donate multiple times a year to Threads and Treads. Often, kids don’t know/recognize their own belongings.
Bathroom accidents happen on occasion. That’s ok (that’s why they’re called “accidents,” not “on purposes”)! Our school nurse has a variety of clothing and shoes for you to borrow, should the occasion arise.
Communication is very important to me! My main method of letting you know what we’re up to is our weekly newsletter, The Wylie Weekly. This will typically come home via email on Sunday or Monday. Please take a few minutes to read over it each week - you’d be surprised how many questions I get that could be answered by looking at the newsletter! I also send updates via email, and read my emails daily. If you don’t hear back from me fairly quickly, please try again. Sometimes, certain emails get blocked by our server. To help avoid this, make sure your email always contains a subject, isn’t ever just a photo, link, or attachment without additional text, and you’re sending me email from address that doesn’t appear that you’re trying to sell me something (ie: janedoe@marykay.com). The classroom phone number is 425.408.5935. While I am required to answer office calls in case of emergency, I try not to answer parent calls in the middle of my teaching day. The attention span of a group of six-year-olds isn’t long, and even by the time I go pick up the phone, all hope is lost. Please defer to email (unless it’s an emergency, then call the office directly at 425.408.5900).
Your child’s folder will be an integral part of our communication this year. I send home important things to you, you can send it important things to me (Linq Connect checks, Scholastic orders, notes for playdates, etc.).
Parent-Teacher Conferences will be held the week prior to and the week of Thanksgiving. The kids are typically dismissed sometime in the late morning on those days, and parents have the opportunity to come in and meet with the teacher usually between noon and 3:45 pm. A sign-up will be sent out via SignUp Genius likely during the month of October. It is imperative that you are prompt for this meeting, as we only have 20 minutes, and if you are late, it can create a disrespectful cascading effect.
Curriculum Night is held once a year in September. Please secure childcare as early as possible, as this is an adult-only event.
If you need to pick up your child early from school, please send in a note in advance. At the time of pick up, I will send them to the office and they will meet you there – you need to sign them out from the front office prior to picking them up.
As it stands right now, we have early release at 2:10 pm nearly every Wednesday.
In PACE, we have the luxury of experiencing multiple field trips. Some in-class, some out-of-class.
I have a passion for gardening. Being that I’m an elementary teacher, too, I seem to have this passion for sharing what I know with young minds! This year, we will learn quite a bit about natural gardening, medicinal and edible plants, and what it really takes to grow plants successfully. You never know when we might eat a turnip, make fresh salsa, indulge in a sorrel fest, or tend to our ever-growing worm bin.
While we don’t practice handwriting as regurlarly as they do in kindergarten, we do our best to always write like big kids. Our letters and numbers always start at the top, we have certain rhymes (courtesy of Handwriting Without Tears) that remind us about proper formation, and we always use our pincher fingers. The more you are able to reinforce these habits at home, the better. If you have concerns about your child’s fine motor ability, please let me know. If I have concerns, I will certainly let you know! We are a team working to help them succeed!
In our class, I don’t assign typical homework. I believe that when young children go home, they need to be outdoors, playing, digging, experimenting, crafting, and using their imaginations. There is plenty of research to back up my belief, and I will share with you more about that on Curriculum Night. If you do want daily homework for your child, chat with me – I have a number of suggestions you could try.
Occasionally, there will be a project that needs completion at home, but these are more typically family activities, rather than a rote worksheet.
Additionally, if your child is struggling with a concept in class, I may send them home with what was left incomplete for you to complete with them at home – there is no rush to these sorts of things though, and no reason to return them to me. It’s more my way of notifying you that we may need a little extra time with a concept.
What is a Just Right book? Any book that your child is interested in reading. Reading can look like looking at the pictures and retelling a story in their own words based on what they saw, or it can look like a child who is sucessfully decoding words and has comprehension to match.
If you're wondering though 'but what level is my child reading and how can I better support them?' First, they need to find a topic that's interesting to them, regardless of genre. Then:
Do the understand most of the story?
Can they retell most of what they've read?
Are they able to recognize the majority of the words on the page; enough so they have a full understanding?
Don't push them! If they get pushed into the "this is hard and I don't like it" group, they won't want to read. If they don't want to read, they won't grow as a reader. If they aren't growing as a reader, things get more difficult. As they're more difficult, they don't want to try. *You see the downward spiral here, yes?* Always encourage them, and let them take it at their own pace.
Our lost and found is typically located in the office hallway. The best way to avoid the lost and found is to label everything they have the potential to remove during the day.
*This is another plug for labeling your child's clothing!
Breakfast is served in the kitchen before school. Kids can eat down there, or outside on the patio.
Lunch is at 11:35. If you would ever like to join your child for lunch (like on their birthday), please let me know in advance. When your child is buying lunch, they need to come to school knowing if they are buying A, B, or C lunch. For each month’s menu, please go to the district lunch website, here.
We do not have a microwave or refrigerator available for student use.
If your child will ever be buying breakfast, lunch, or milk at school, it is preferable that they have money in their Bank-A-Meal account. You can send in a check or cash (preferably a check) to school to be applied to your child’s account. It takes 24-48 hours to show up in the system, so don’t fret if you send in money and it takes a couple of days for you to stop getting automated “overage” calls.
Costs are as follows:
Breakfast: $2.75 Lunch: $4.50 Milk Only: $0.75
The simplest way to maintain your sanity with school lunches is by going to LINQConnect. If you are interested in applying for free & reduced breakfast/lunch for your child, please visit this page to download the application (or let me know and I'd be happy to print one for you).
Additionally, I strongly suggest that even if you don’t think your child will ever need to buy school breakfast, lunch, or milk, you still put a simple $5.00 in their account. Accounts roll over through 12th grade, so your money won’t be lost. You never know when they’ll forget their lunch in the car or on the bus, when they’ll decide that cheese pizza sounds better than the pb&j you made, when they’ll trip and dump the contents of their lunchbox on the floor, when they’ll see a friend having cereal before school and decide to join them, etc… Trust me, I’ve seen it all.
Your child may be dropped off as early as 8:50 am. They will drop off their backpack in our classroom line and go to the playground where there is adult supervision. If they need to use the restroom prior to school, they will use the one in the kitchen/kindergarten hallway. Hanging out on the walkways is not allowed as it is unsupervised.
At Wellington, we are fortunate to have Nurse Ellen full-time! If your child gets injured, or feels ill, I will send him/her to her for evaluation. Please do not send your child to school if you know or suspect they are ill. Additionally, our district policy states that children must be fever-, diarrhea-, and vomit-free, without the aid of medication, for a minimum of 24 hours prior to returning to school (for a child, a fever is anything over 100.4* - under this is your discretion, many kids can have low-grade fevers, but still feel terrible, and therefore shouldn't come to school). This is especially crucial in first grade – we share EVERYTHING!
All classrooms dismiss before the bell rings so we can be lined up in our proper lines for actual dismissal once the bell rings. If they are a bus rider, they will go straight to their bus line, YMCA goes to the walker line, and parent pick-up goes to the parent-pick-up line. If you park your car and want to pick them up, please wait in the line up of parents. They cannot walk out to the parking lot without you, nor can they walk off campus without you unless you've designated them as a walker. Please don't come to our foyer, or try to grab your child from the bus line area.
If you are hosting a party for your child, and inviting EVERY child in our class, you are more than welcome to send in invitations to school – I will assist your child in handing them out during lunch. If you are not inviting the whole class (because, lets face it, that can be a little crazy), please do not send invitations into class – feelings are hurt easily with these sorts of things, and it’s so very avoidable. This also goes for parents coming in to “sneak” invitations into certain kids’ backpacks. Even if you do this while the kids aren’t in the room, you can be sure they’ll discover them during pack-up time. Addresses are in the PACE Directory for our whole class.
You’re already a part of the PACE community, why not be a part of the PTA as well? Your whole school support means a LOT, and your children certainly benefit from all they do for us! I'm a dues-paying member every year... join me? You can find more information about our PTA by going to their website.
Technically, we have two recesses on every full day. One that is from 10:30-10:45, and one that follows our lunch, from 12:25-12:55. If you ask the kids, they’ll say we have three recesses – they look forward to “early morning recess” (the time out on the playground with their friends prior to school starting) every day! This "recess" is actually pretty beneficial - otherwise, they tend to want to spend the morning visiting with friends rather than being ready to work once we come in the classroom.
Please make sure your child is dressed to be outside, even on rainy days. There are no indoor recess options during the first recess, however, during the second recess, there are some limited indoor options. Kids are encouraged to “use their best judgment” when outside on rainy days. They get plenty of reminders.
There will be four reporting periods throughout the year. In November and March, we have mid-term Progress Reports. In January and June, we have Report Cards – these are much more in-depth than the Progress Reports.
Our lunch is early on in the day, so kids don’t typically eat prior to that. However, some kids, especially if they get up early and go to daycare, get a little hangry if they don’t have a snack prior to lunch. They have the opportunity to enjoy a morning snack during first recess any day. I do tell them that it must be something semi-healthy, though. Ie: carrots or a cheese stick vs. the brownie from their lunch.
During the first month of school, kids are weaning off of their summer eating schedule, which often means they were used to eating whenever they felt like it. So, to help this, during the month of September only, we take 15 minutes out of our classroom day to have an afternoon snack. Dry snacks are preferred (cheese sticks, a granola bar, crackers, etc. vs. fruit cups that explode when you open them).
*Kids get hungry/hangry. They also eat a LOT more in school than they did during summer break. I will never tell a child they cannot eat. I have snacks in the classroom, and if they're hungry later on, I encourage them to check and see if they have something left from their lunch, too. You might consider putting a small stash of snacks in that front pocket of your child's backpack they can grab from as needed. Thanks!
Please take some time every day to go over the things in your child’s folder with them. Ask them what they did, and how! They love being the expert! Praise their efforts, and support them if more help is needed.
If your child is late, they must go to the office to sign-in prior to coming down to class. You would think that five minutes late isn’t a big deal, however, here’s how that usually plays out: Little Jimmy is dropped off five minutes late. He doesn’t realize it, so he comes straight to class. I’ve already done attendance and ask Jimmy is he has his late slip. He says no – I now have to send him down to the office to go get one. By this time, he’s easily ten minutes late. But, he’s not the only late student in the office, so he has to wait to sign in (our school has the HIGHEST amount of tardies of any school in the district – this needs to change). Uh oh! Now they’re doing the announcements and the Pledge of Allegiance, so Jimmy is waiting a little longer. Finally, he’s done in the office, so he heads back to class, where we’ve already done our morning routine and talked about what our day holds in store, and likely started our math lesson. Jimmy is 20-25 minutes late now. If Jimmy is 25 minutes late, just once a week, he misses roughly 15 hours of school. Not only that, but every single time a student comes in late, it distracts the rest of the class. They all turn and notice, not to mention all the “Mrs. Wylie, Jimmy is here” notifications I get. So, not only is his only learning hindered, so is that of his classmates.
Suggestions: have your child lay out their clothes the night before, pack lunch the night before (or have lunch choices easy to grab in the fridge), get up 15 minutes earlier and let them come play on the playground (they hate missing morning recess!), put the backpack, with everything in it and ready-to-go by the door as part of bedtime routine.
Please do not send your child to school with toys. They are too much of a distraction, and if they come out in the classroom, my policy is that they are “mine until Friday.” This is now a whole-school policy. Some kids like to bring/sneak little toys to play with at recess. I understand that this sounds like a harmless idea, however, I’ve also seen the tears when said toy gets broken or dirty because someone wasn’t careful enough. Or, the toy gets lost under the grate, in the sandbox, on the bus, or wherever. Also, now we're teaching them that breaking the rules is ok sometimes??
If you plan on volunteering in our classroom at all this year (or going on a field trip, helping during an in-class field trip, helping with STEM, art, gardening, or a class party, etc...), you MUST have a Washington State Patrol Background check packet already filled out and on file with the office. If you have not already done one, I encourage you to do so as soon as possible.
It is a Wellington policy that in-class volunteering not start until October. This goes for PACE, too. It gives us a chance to bond with the students and get our new routines underway.
It is a school-wide policy that younger siblings not come to the classroom with you during your volunteering. Your full attention needs to be on the children you are working with, and that’s just not possible if you have a youngster there, too. Oh, and no, you can’t leave them sitting unattended in the hallway. We use the hallways for reading groups, math groups, etc. Not to mention that we really don’t want your little one unattended for any period of time.
Prior to your volunteer time, EVERY time, you need to sign-in in the office and visibly wear a volunteer sticker.
First grade is tough! We are here to learn, make mistakes, and have fun – that takes a lot out of a little body! The National Sleep Foundation, amongst others, recommends that children this age sleep 9-11 hours each night. They also warn against watching television just before bed because it makes it harder on their little brains to wind down. Reading before bed is a great option. Please help to make sure your child is well-rested each day. Set a nightly routine and stick to it!