School hours are from 8:25-3:30. It is important not to drop your child off too early because there is no adult supervision outside before 8:25. Third graders should proceed directly to their classrooms. If they are getting breakfast from the cafeteria, they should pick it up first. Students will be dismissed out the front doors at the end of the day. It is important that you and your child have a designated meeting spot outside of the school. If your daily plans change, be sure that your child is aware of these changes and please email me or send a note of any special or different arrangements on a specific day. If you have a change that your child does not know about, please notify through the office and they will call our room to let the student know.
All Cougar Run students are expected to follow our ROCKS behaviors. They are:
R—Respect and Responsibility
O—Power of One
C—Compassion
K—Kindness
S—Safety
Our classroom uses a color chart to monitor our daily behaviors. Each day, every student begins on "green". Students are given a verbal reminder if they are not following an expectation. After the verbal reminder, the progression of colors is:
Green—Verbal warning
Yellow—A 5-minute classroom break followed by a conversation with me
Orange—student is asked to fill out a reflection card and take a break outside of the classroom is a quite safe space before we discuss their behavior
Red—Communication is sent home to families following a discussion with the student and they will miss a recess.
Each week we have a "Student of the Week". This student is randomly chosen by our previous student of the week. The student of the week will bring home an "All about Me" poster the week prior. They should complete the poster and bring it back to school on the first day of their special week. Throughout the week, the student will have an opportunity to share their poster, share favorite items from home and share their favorite book.
Birthdays are an important day for children. We celebrate by signing a class card and students will get a small gift sack to take home. If you would like to send treats, they must be store purchased and easy to serve.
It is very important that students come to school with a full water bottle. We do not go to lunch until 12:00, so we will have a time in the morning when students may have a snack. It should be easy to eat and not contain nuts of any kind. Also, because of some students' allergies students' may not share snacks.
Friday folders contain important school information as well as student work. Please check your child's folder, empty all contents, and return on Monday. Sometimes folders may contain paperwork from the office that needs to be returned. Graded class work will also be sent home on a regular basis. We use a grading system consistent with our report cards:
E—Exceeds expectations (meaning the work was above and beyond third grade level)
M—Meets expectations (the work is consistent with expectations for a third grader at that point in the year)
A—Approaching (the work is not quite to third grade level )
B—Below expectations (the work is below grade level).
Please note that not all work is graded, some is just checked for completion or has been gone over in class.
All fifth graders will have a Chromebook assigned to them. At the beginning of the school year, students will attend a "tech academy" and learn the rules and expectations for using computers. The computers will always remain at school. It is also very important that you they have working headphones. Please make sure headphones are able to be plugged in. If headphones break, they will bring them home, and I will send you an email letting you know they need replaced.
Every few weeks, I will send home a scholastic book order. These are inexpensive ways to purchase books for your child. You can fill out the order form and return to school with a check or order online. This is also a way to help out our classroom as every order earns points that are used for purchasing books for our room. Students will get to vote on which books we choose to buy.