Home School Communication:

• All home-school correspondence, homework and newsletters will be sent home in your child's grade 1 folder.

• Please ask your child to show you their folder each day and be sure to remind your first grader to put it in their backpack each morning!

• I will check for notes from you at the beginning of each day!

Pick Up/After School Activities

If your child is a daily pick up or picked up certain days every week, please send in a blanket note indicating they are a daily pick up or will be a pick up every Tuesday (for example). For the occasional pick up or after school activity please include my name, the date, your child’s full name, the activity they are attending, or that they are a pick up.

Recess

We will be going out to recess every day, as weather allows. Please send your child in with clothes that are appropriate for the weather. Additionally, please consider labeling your child’s belongings (jackets, lunch boxes, hats, etc) before sending them to school.

Birthdays

• We celebrate birthdays with a birthday pencil and a crown! No snacks this year

Homework

We continue to value the importance of a home-school partnership as we work together to help our students grow and learn. However, we will be moving away from traditional paper homework to focus on the importance of nightly reading and math fact practice.

• READING: Please read with your first grader every night and make it part of your routine! Early in the year, the adult may do most of the reading or you might share the reading. However, as the children progress and grow as readers, they will assume a greater amount of reading. Your child will have a book bag with “just right” take home books to practice. I will also include a Fundations “trick word” flashcard ring for practice of important sight words. The Raz-Kids program is a great resource for practice as well! All children will have an account which provides a library of online readers at their “just right” level.

• MATH: We would like your child to practice their math facts nightly to improve fact fluency. This can be done with flashcards and games. From time to time, games will be sent home to support this practice!

Absences

• You may contact the Pine Grove School office at (860) 404-4790. You may also email the office staff at: danderson@avon.k12.ct.us (Dianne) and kblanchard@avon.k12. ct.us (Kim) to let them know about any absences.

• It is helpful if you cc me, as well. There is also a state policy in which ALL ABSENCES NEED A WRITTEN NOTE OR EMAIL BEFORE OR AFTER THE ABSENCE! If your child will be out for a planned absence, please send a note, or email. (If you choose to email please send the email to me and the office staff.)

Snack

We will start the year with 2 snacks. Please help your child pick a healthy snack, like fresh fruits or veggies, for the morning. The afternoon snack is a free choice and they may bring in anything. We eat lunch at 11:30 and some children will need a morning and afternoon snack to help them concentrate.

Sharing

I would like the children to feel comfortable expressing themselves orally by sharing with the rest of the class. This share can be an item or something they did or are looking forward to doing. I like to call this “sharing” rather than “show and tell” because I want the children to realize they are sharing a part of themselves with their classmates. Each child will have a designated day for their share. Our sharing schedule will be shared soon. Some children may need some extra practice at home to be ready for their share day.