Policies and Information
Volunteer Opportunities:
Parent Volunteers are a wonderful asset to the classroom. If you are interested, please read
the different classroom jobs. Think about signing up or sending a note in telling me where
you would like to help!
Classroom Assistants:
Help work with small groups and one-on one instruction.
Teacher’s Helper (any day and time during school hours would be fine).
Prepare materials, arrange displays, pull math pages, and copy papers (this does not involve
working with students).
ROOM PARENT:
Coordinates special events and contacts other parents for class events.
Behavior Policy and Classroom Community
I believe in fostering a classroom of learners who are kind, helpful, and respectful. In our
classroom, we will share and celebrate each others’ learning to create a positive environment
where everyone’s ideas are valued! Our classroom guidelines will reflect the students’ ideas of
appropriate behavior in the classroom; we will create them together and sign our names,
agreeing to uphold the guidelines.
The students and I will continually build our classroom community throughout the year. There
will be many opportunities for the students to engage in collaborative work as well as large
group activities, where they are expected to contribute with positive interactions. They can do
so by following the classroom guidelines, performing daily jobs to help the class function
smoothly, completing assignments (including homework), and contributing to group activities.
Discipline procedure will be as follows:
1st offense: Reminder by the teacher
2nd offense: Teacher and student discuss a change
3rd offense: Contact the Parents
Incentives
In our classroom, we will be using whole group and individual incentives.
Whole Class: Students will “compete” against the teacher each day for good behavior. If the
students are attentive listeners, working hard, practicing kindness, etc, they will receive a point.
If the students are not demonstrating these behaviors, the teacher will earn a point. The points
will be recorded on our classroom’s scoreboard. At the end of the day, if the students beat the
teachers, they will earn a point for winning that day. Once the students have earned 20 points,
the class will receive a group-discussed reward.
Individual: Each day, I will be looking for students who are being respectful, upholding the
classroom promise, including others and showing kindness, etc. These students will be awarded
a ticket, which they will write their name on and place in a bin. Each week I will have a
drawing, the student drawn will receive a small prize.
Homework Policy
Frequency:
The students will be given homework Monday through Thursday throughout the school
year.
Assignments and Organization:
The children will be given word study and an assignment from another content area
(such as math) for homework. The content work should be kept in the students’
homework folders.
The children will bring home their word study notebooks nightly. In the front of the
notebooks the students will have a list of activities to complete throughout the week. The
word study words are to be kept in the pocket in the back of the notebook. Children are
responsible for maintaining their words and keeping them in the notebooks. Spelling
words will not be posted online.
The students should be reading nightly for approximately 20 minutes. Please have your
child record the book he/she read, genre of the book and the time spent reading, in the
homework agenda. The students will be given a sheet containing descriptions of the
genres. Your child should keep this paper in the front of his/her agenda to refer to.
Parents:
Parents are encouraged to work with their children on their homework and look over it
when it is complete. Although assistance is wonderful, the child should be able to do the
activities sent home independently. When checking your child’s work, parents should
circle “tricky” questions that were worked on together. This allows me to see where
students need additional work.
Note: Homework should be taking approximately 30 minutes to complete. If it is taking longer
than this, please sign the homework page showing where your child stopped working after it was
reviewed by you.
Parents, please SIGN your child’s planner every night.
Test Policy
Students will be tested periodically on the material covered in class. They will be expected to
study for tests at home. A day or two before the tests, students will do a review guide in class,
which will give them most of the information for the test. They need to study the review guide,
the book and any other worksheets that we completed in class.
After each test is completed and graded, I will send them home for review with your
child. Please make sure you take the time to see how your child is doing and discuss with them
the things that they struggled with as well as the things they did successfully. Your interest and
encouragement will help motivate your child to always do his/her best. These tests will need to
be signed and returned to school the next day.
Each Friday your child will be bringing home work that has been completed and graded
throughout the week. Please sign the front of the white envelope that we will be using as a
Friday folder to show that you have seen all the graded assignments sent home, including tests.
Word Study
Your child is going to be involved in a spelling program called Word Study this year.
This program integrates reading, writing and spelling together and helps children see the
connection between them. Word Study uses hands-on instruction to promote meaningful
connections between words and helps students recognize patterns found within them. It
follows the Inquiry Approach, allowing children to make connections themselves, gaining a
broader understanding of how to create their own words. This will help your child have an
overall better understanding of the English Language.
Every Monday your child will receive a new list of words that they will be working with
all week. They will be using these words in various sorting activities where they look at
patterns and use them in additional writing and drawing assignments. The children will be
learning to look at words in different ways, finding the patterns and meanings that make up our
language. The children will be expected to complete a different activity each night for
homework that will help them remember and retain the new patterns we are studying. On
Friday, the class will take a spelling tests based on these words.
You can help! Look at the 1st quarter schedule below to make sure your child is
completing the activities nightly. The students will complete their work in their Word Study
Notebooks that should be coming back and forth to and from school daily. Each quarter the
assignments will change slightly. The schedule will be glued in the front of your child’s Word
Study Notebook. *Some of these assignments require your help!
Mondays: Sort the words the way that they were sorted in class.
*Have your child read the list out loud to you and tell you why the words are in each column.
The children need to write the words in their columns in the word study notebook.
Tuesdays: Write five sentences, each with a different word from your word list.
Underline the spelling words used din the sentences.
Challenge: Write five sentences with two or three words in them!
Wednesdays: Write a paragraph using at least seven of your spelling words.
Underline the spelling words used in the paragraph.
Thursdays: No- Peeking Sort
Read out the spelling words one at a time. have your child point to the column that the word
should be placed in without looking at it. The children need to write down the words in the
columns to practice spelling them correctly.
Snack
Our third graders each lunch often hours after breakfast; we suggest that
your student bring a healthy snack to eat during the morning. Please help your
child make a good choice about what they bring to class. Please no candy or junk
food and only one small snack item. Snack is eaten quickly in our rooms’ midmorning. If your child will need a utensil (i.e.: spoon or fork) please send that
along as well.
Thank you for your support. Working together, we can help your child
be successful!