Dear Parents,
Welcome to first grade! I am very excited about this school year. I look forward to working with you and your children to make this an exciting and successful school year.
For the success of your child, please read with him/her for 20 minutes each day. The more a child reads at home the more successful he/she is at school.
Please work with your child on mastering his/her addition facts to 20. You can purchase flash cards at the Dollar Store. First graders are expected to be able to complete 40 addition facts to 10 in 4 minutes by December and 100 addition facts to 20 in 8 minutes by May. If he/she is still using fingers or number lines, the facts have not been mastered
Please feel free to contact me through email, Class Dojo, by note, or by phone (355-8349) if you have any questions or concerns regarding your child. I want us to work together to make this a fun and successful year for your child.
What an exciting time it is for all of us as we start out a new year at Simpsonville Elementary at Morton Place! I am very pleased to be working with you this year. It is my desire to help you create a smooth transition for your child from kindergarten to first grade I'm hoping for a very normal school year this year! Here are a few items of interest that I thought should be reviewed:
Our lunch time is from 11:05-11:35. For lunch choices, please go to http://www.schoolnutritionandfitness.com/ . This is the District’s site for menus. For students breakfast is free. The lunch price for adults is $4.60. School wide rules: No fast food or can drinks are allowed in the lunch room.
Communication: I can be reached by phone at 355-8349. You may leave a message and I will get back with you as soon as possible, usually after school. I can also be reached by e-mail: preece@greenville.k12.sc.us. Please do NOT use email to inform me of a change in the way your child will get home that day. I may not be able to check it in time. Call the front office or write a note if there is a change in your child’s transportation. If you write a note, please put it in the return to school pocket of your child’s Daily Folder, so that I will be sure to see it. I will send a newsletter home weekly. If you don’t get one, or lose it, I post it on my website. The web address is https://teachers.greenville.k12.sc.us/sites/preece/default.aspx.
Absences: If your child is absent please complete the online abentee form found on our school website.
General Information: For safety reasons, all visitors including parents must report to the office for a visitor’s pass upon entering the school building.
School Hours: Our building is opened at 7:00 AM each morning. Students must report to designated areas located in the hallways off of the atrium. If your child is eating breakfast, please have them report directly to the cafeteria. The Library opens at 7:30 daily. I would like for your child to be here at 7:30 to get a good start for the day.
Sending Money: Any money sent to school for lunch, field trips, etc should be sent in a sealed envelope. Make sure to write your child’s name on the envelope along with what the money is for.
*Please remember to review the Simpsonville Parent/Student Handbook online.
I look forward to getting to know you and your family. Working together we can achieve many positive things for your child.
Sincerely,
Pam Reece
Here are some extra tips that you can be doing with your child at home:
1. Read to your child every night and develop a library.
2. Play games that encourage thinking: dominoes, bingo, card games, Scrabble, Boggle, Monopoly.
3. Have your child count everything in sight.
4. Have your child sort different objects that are around the house.
5. Have your child arrange selected items in sequence according to size and weight.
6. Talk with your child, answering questions whenever possible.
7. Encourage your child to follow maps and keep diaries on trips.
8. Encourage your child to write out of town relatives.
9. Help your child acquire new interests and hobbies.
10. Encourage physical activity, active play, and sports.
11. Borrow from the library records, videos, and tapes especially for your child.
12. Encourage siblings to help one another.
13. Watch television with your child, asking questions about the characters, the plot, the setting. Encourage guessing during quiz shows.
14. Encourage your child to read the comics in the newspapers. Cut the strips apart and have your child rearrange them in sequence.
15. Post your child's work in a prominent place (refrigerator/bulletin board).
16. Encourage your child to answer questions orally in complete sentences.
Helpful Reading Hints
1. Take turns reading with your child. (Example - you read one page or sentence and your child reads the next)
2. Have your child read a few pages by themselves and then ask them questions about what they read. Be sure to ask questions like, "How would you feel if that happened to you?" or "What do you think will happen next?" Always try to make sure they are comprehending what they are reading and not just calling the words.
3. When your child comes to a word they don't know, have them check the picture, reread the sentence to see if they can figure it out, reread and say the first part of the word, look for chunks in the word, and think of what would make sense.
4. Always have them retell the story to you, whether they read to you or to themselves. This is so important! They must comprehend what they are reading. Remember to make sure they tell you what happened in the right order.
5. To practice fluency, have your child read a passage. When they come across a word that they do not know, they say "word please," and you tell them the word. Have them reread the passage and see if they remember the word that they previously asked for.
6. Take time to read to them for fun. A good time for this is just before bedtime. Easy chapter books are excellent for this because you can help them with their retelling and predicting skills. Ask them what happened in the story the night before. After you read, have them predict what will happen in the next chapter.
7. This one may be harder - Set aside a family reading time. It is good to do this every day, but you may just want to set aside a time on Saturday or Sunday for about 30 minutes. This doesn't have to be a long period of time. Everyone in the house should try to have some quiet reading time. It could be the paper, a magazine, or a book. Try to make if a fun thing and not just weekend homework.
** I hope these are helpful. Reading is so important and I want your child to enjoy it. Everyone learns from reading, and it can be fun if it's not always treated as a chore.
Happy Reading!!