Label, Label, Label: Please label everything that comes into the classroom. This includes book bags, lunch boxes, water bottles, sweatshirts, jackets, hats, etc.
Rest Time: The students will have rest time every day. They will lie down on their rest mats(provided by the school) daily for about 45 minutes, depending on the time of year. Each student will need a rest/beach towel to lie on. Please label the rest/beach towel with your child’s name. The rest/beach towel will be sent to school every Monday and will be returned home to be washed every Friday. Please do not send in “special” stuffed animals, blankets, or other comfort items for rest time. To help prevent items from being lost or misplaced, I ask that children leave their special “loveys” at home.
Shoes and clothing: Students should wear tennis shoes and socks to school. The socks should be white with no logo. Students wear the school’s gym uniform to school daily. Please no flip-flops or water shoes.
Bathroom and Change of Clothes: To help ensure a successful preschool experience, all children must be fully toilet-trained before the start of school. Children may not wear diapers or pull-ups while attending PreK.
We know that accidents happen! Whether it's a bathroom accident, a spilled drink, or a messy art project, these moments are a normal part of being a preschooler. To help your child feel confident and comfortable, please practice changing clothes independently at home. For the safety and privacy of all students, teachers are not permitted to assist children with changing their clothing.
Please send a complete change of clothes to be kept in the classroom for your child. These clothes do not need to be the St. Margaret's gym uniform. Place the following items in a gallon-size zip-top bag labeled with your child's first and last name:
One pair of shorts
One shirt
Two pairs of underwear
One pair of socks
(We will return the clothing to you when the weather turns cooler for a new set of clothes.)
Having these items readily available will help your child quickly get back to learning and playing if an accident or spill occurs.
Pictures for the classroom: I will need one 3X5 picture of your child and one wallet-sized picture of your child. These pictures will not be returned to you, so please feel free to print them out on regular copy paper.
School Hours and Information
Hours: The school day begins at 8:15. We will begin to unload the drop-off line and let students into the building at 8:05 am. Teachers will escort the students into the building.
Saying Goodbye: If your child has difficulty with the “good-bye” part of drop-off in the morning, please remember to be cheerful and confident, smile warmly, and let us help them into the classroom.
Drop-off and Dismissal:
Arrival will be at the glass doors facing the blacktop at 8:05. If you arrive after 8:15, please park your car in a parking spot (not on the blacktop) and walk your child to the main office to obtain a late slip.
Dismissal will take place at the nurse’s glass doors at 2:20 p.m. Please have your dismissal sign with you. This will help me easily identify you and ensure that I know which child belongs to each family. If you plan to use the carpool line and park on the blacktop, please remember that you may not leave the parking lot until the entire school dismisses after 2:45 p.m. If you prefer not to wait, you may park on Hickory Avenue or by the church and walk up to the nurse’s glass doors to pick up your child. Thank you for your help in making dismissal run smoothly!
Inclement Weather: If there is inclement weather, St. Margaret School follows Harford County Public Schools' closing schedule. A school-wide email will be sent out to families about closures and delays. You may also view St. Margaret’s social media for inclement weather information as well. If HCPS is closed, then St. Margaret’s will be closed. If there is a 2-hour delay, our class will begin at 10:05 am and end at our normal dismissal time, 2:20.
Communication
Folder: I will give your child a folder to use as a daily take-home folder. This folder will be placed in your child’s bookbag daily. Please send any notes to me in this folder. Also, check this folder NIGHTLY for important information, completed papers/projects, and homework. Please clean out the folder nightly as well. Make sure the folder comes back to school each day.
Emails: You will receive emails from me filled with what we learned that week. Please use this information to ask your child questions about their week.
Webpage: My webpage on Saint Margaret’s website is another way to access important information. I will be posting important dates and other helpful information on a daily/weekly basis.
Room Parent: The room parent will be communicating with you through email. Please watch your inbox for her/his weekly emails filled with reminders of what is going on in the classroom for that week as well as in the school. Please go through your room parent for any questions about classroom activities, dates, or scheduling issues. If she/he cannot answer your question, she/he will get in contact with me for the answer and then relay it to you. If you have any personal issues to discuss with me, you may email me personally. Please remember that the room parent is a parent in our class who has volunteered to help us out. Her/his weekly emails are a nice convenience to us, but they are not our only source of information. Please be proactive in using the school’s website, my website, and my emails to assist you in finding out information. Once I am informed of who the room parent will be this year, I will be happy to share that information with you.
Food and Drink
Snack: Every school day, please send your child to school with a small dry snack. Please place your child’s snack in an easy-to-open container or pouch. Your child will be working towards opening their snack container or pouch independently. Practicing with your child to open their snack container at home will help with independence in the classroom. Please place the snack in the front small pocket or side pocket of their book bag. Do not put the snack in the lunch box. Part of the morning routine will be for students to place their snack in the snack bin. The preschool is a nut-free environment. Please label your child’s snack with their first and last names.
Water Bottle: Students are welcome to bring a spill-proof water bottle to school each day. To help prevent spills in the classroom, please make sure the water bottle does not have an open spout. Water bottles with a flip-up straw work best. Please label your child's water bottle with their first and last name.
Lunch:
Please send in lunch daily. The preschool is a water-only school. Unfortunately, juice or flavored waters are not allowed. We can refill water bottles as needed throughout the day.
The school does have some hot lunch options for you to look at for your own child. Please see the school website for information on those options.
The keyword to lunchtime is INDEPENDENCE! When packing your child’s lunch, please make sure they can open everything themselves. Do a test run at home if you need to. Mrs. Hovatter will be there to assist, but we will really be striving for them to be independent and self-sufficient.
All lunches must be “nut-free”.
There is one other item that is not allowed in the classroom, besides nut-free items and juice. That item is the fruit cups with juice. They are extremely hard for “little ones” to open, and if opened incorrectly, they make a huge mess.
We will not be supplying plastic spoons and forks for lunches, so please remember to pack them in your child’s lunch if they need them.
See the Volunteer section for more information on Lunch Helper Volunteers.
Birthday Snack: Birthdays are fun to celebrate. You may send in a special snack to share with the entire class for your child’s birthday, such as prepackaged mini cupcakes, popsicles, ice cream cups, etc. The snack must be nut-free. Children who have summer birthdays are more than welcome to celebrate their birthdays during the school year. Parents are welcome to sign up to be the lunch helper on the day of their child’s birthday to help celebrate.
Volunteering
All volunteers must complete the VIRTUS certification before volunteering in the classroom or on a field trip. If you have any certification questions, please view the St. Margaret’s website or email John Gerstmyer at jgerstmyer@smsch.org.
Field Trips: An adult must accompany their child on the field trip. One child to one adult. Sorry, but siblings are not allowed to attend the field trips. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Holiday Parties: The room parent will be organizing the holiday parties. He/she will most likely be sending out the items she/he needs through SignUpGenius.
Mystery Reader: Mystery Reader is a great way to come in and be involved with our class through literacy. Mystery Reader will be scheduled through SignUpGenius beginning in mid-October. The time and day of the Mystery Reader, as well as more detailed information, will be shared at a later date. These volunteers will need to be Virtus-certified.
Lunch Helper: Our Room Parent will send out a SignUpGenius for parents who would like to volunteer as lunch helpers. All lunch helpers must be Virtus-certified before volunteering. Lunch helpers assist Mrs. Hovatter during lunchtime by encouraging students to use good table manners, helping distribute hot lunches, assisting with spills and other small cleanups, sweeping the floor, and wiping down the tables after lunch. Our goal is to encourage independence, so lunch helpers are there to assist and encourage students rather than do tasks for them whenever possible. Please note that, unfortunately, siblings are not permitted to attend during lunch volunteer time.
Curriculum: Each week, we will focus on a certain letter and its sounds, numbers, holidays, religious concepts, general math concepts, and sight words. The stations in the classroom will correlate with the letter, number, or topic we are studying for the week. We will be participating in 4 specials throughout the school year - library/media, Spanish, gym, and music.
Homework: Homework packets will be sent home on Mondays. These packets are optional but highly encouraged and offer your child a way to continue to practice skills that were taught in school at home. If you choose to complete the packets, please send them back to school with your child’s name on them so we can see their great work! If you do not wish to have a packet sent home, please let me know.