Notice Folder

Each child has a notice folder for communication between home and school. Please check your child’s notice folder nightly, look through any notices and return it to school with your child the next day with any completed forms or notes for us or other school personnel. Please make sure to return the notice folder even if you have not had time to fill out the paperwork. Since we send home material daily, children need their folder everyday.

Please feel free to email or call us. Please understand that our network provider does not always work. If we have responded within two days, we have probably not received your message.

Friday Folders

Each Friday your child will be sent home with a yellow Friday Folder. We will write comments to you pertaining to your child’s behavior and work habits on the folder. We ask that you sign and return the folder and make any additional comments you may have. This folder will contain corrected work from the week, including the previous week’s homework. Please have your child return the folder to school every Monday.

Children who are driven or walk to school may be left in the yard no earlier than 9:15am. Before this time teachers are not on duty and cannot supervise the children. School begins at 9:25am. Please be sure your child is on time for school. If they come after 9:25, they should report to the office for a late pass.

Walkers are dismissed at 3:25pm in the schoolyard. Please meet your child at the door when picking them up. For any changes in transportation or dismissal, students must have a written note signed by a guardian. Students will not be allowed to walk home with an older sibling unless they have written permission from a parent. We must be informed if they will be picked up an adult other than your self. Should you arrange to change your child’s dismissal routine please try to do so by 11:00am. Please try to keep the dismissal procedures as consistent as possible. Children will not be allowed to take another bus home even with a note from a parent.

It is EXTREMELY important that your child attend school everyday. If your child will not be in school, please call the office that morning so we can account for all students’ whereabouts. Please remember to send a note to excuse the absence even if you called the school. Any student who accumulates four or more unexcused absences during a marking period will receive a no credit (NC) for the term. If a child has more than twelve unexcused absences by the end of the year, he or she will be retained or required to attend summer school. For more details on excused absences and promotion, please refer to the Boston Public Schools Family and Student Guide.

Lunch and recess is from 12:28 to 1:22 p.m. everyday.

We use a social curriculum called the Responsive Curriculum. We believe that academic and social learning go hand-in-hand and that children cannot learn until they feel safe in school, feel cared about by their classmates and teachers, and feel that they have a strong voice in their learning. Children are held to high behavioral expectations, but only after they have been taught the expectations and allowed to practice them. We develop the rules together as a class after discussing our hopes and dreams for the school year. The rules are reviewed weekly, and children assess the aspects of behavior they need to work harder on each week. All families will receive a copy of the rules. Please post the rules in your home and review them with your child.

Should students have trouble following the rules (as we all sometimes do), there is a logical consequence for their action. Logical consequences include:

Loss of privilege (e.g., if a child throws the blocks, the child cannot use the blocks until the following day).

Time away from the group (e.g., if the child disrupts the group during meeting time, the child will need to leave the meeting for a few minutes; a consistently disruptive child might need to spend some time in the room next door, or in very serious situations the child will be sent to the office).

"You break it, you fix it" (e.g., if a child rips another child’s work, the child needs to help mend it, or if a child hurts another child’s feelings, the child needs to do something to make the hurt child feel better).

Should your child have significant difficulty following the rules, we will communicate with you about their behavior through notes/phone calls. Please try your best to follow-up at home by discussing the importance of following rules and setting consequences at home for the behavior should you receive a note. Please also understand that when we send a note home regarding inappropriate behavior, we have also discussed it with the child and they understand the seriousness of their actions. If necessary we will work closely with you to help your child make progress toward being a safe and caring member of our class.

Morning Work

When students arrive in the morning they begin their day with morning work. Morning work is a skills based review of math and language arts skills. The morning work is corrected each day and children are asked to review any mistakes and correct them.

Morning Meeting

We formally begin our day together with morning meeting. The morning meeting format is adopted from The Northeast Foundation for Children. It provides children the daily opportunity to practice greetings, conversations, problem solving, and motivates them to meet the academic challenges of the school day.

Language Arts

We spend approximately 90 minutes a day on language arts. This period is broken up into the following:

Phonics- We spend 20 minutes a day on phonics. We use the Bradley phonics program.

Spelling – Our spelling words come from the Bradley program. We spend 5-10 minutes a day on spelling.

Writing – We work on our writing skills for 40 minutes. During this time students learn grammar and craft skills and apply these to their writing. Students do free writing in their Writer’s Notebooks, learn to write in different genre, respond to literature, and respond to writing prompts.

Reading – We use the E.L.L.I Guided Reading Program daily. During this period students engage in independent reading, literature discussions, and shared reading. Our literature is selected from the Houghton Mifflin Basal series and from the Boston Public Schools required reading list for grade 3. Students also enjoy many books read aloud.

Curriculum Notes:

In Reader’s Workshop, we will work with students to increase the time they are able to spend reading independently. We will continue to build student’s skills and reading strategies. Throughout the year students will participate in author studies and genre studies. As an accompaniment to our social studies curriculum, biographies will be a particular focus.

In Writer’s Workshop, students will work on taking one piece of writing through the writing process: seed, draft, revision, editing, and publishing. Students will focus on letter writing, persuasive writing, poetry, fiction, fiction, report writing, and essay writing.

Math

Our math period runs for approximately one hour per day. In response to the needs of our children, the Lyndon School has purchased a new math curriculum from Scott Foresman. This program is more skills based than TERC. However, we are not abandoning TERC. TERC provides students with excellent opportunities for concept development. We are implementing a coordinated program, which makes use of both curricula.

Curriculum Notes: We will begin our year by studying place value and money. Our math team is currently developing a scope and sequence that will most effectively combine the Scott Foresman and TERC curriculum. We will follow their plan for the rest of the year.

Social Studies/Science

We meet for social studies approximately two times a week for 40 minutes. Students see Ms. McClure, our school science teacher for science enrichment for forty minutes each week. In class, we will support topics Ms. McClure introduces.

Curriculum Notes: In social studies, students will learn map skills. They will study maps of Earth, the United States, the Northeast region, and Massachusetts and learn to identify geographic features, states, and cities. We will also study Massachusetts’s history from Native American life through to the 1800s. There will be an emphasis on conflicts included the Civil War and American Revolution, economic development, and the evolution of communities.

Specials

Our students meet with specialists four times per week. This year the three third grade classes will attend specials in integrated groups.

The following are the specialist teacher:

Computers: Mrs. Smith

Art: Ms. Sallen

Music: Mr. Ward

Gym: Mrs. Holmes

Science Enrichment: Ms. McClure

Birthdays can be celebrated in school with a special snack. Please send a note in at least two days before you want to celebrate your child’s birthday. There are twenty- five children in each classroom. If you choose to celebrate with food, individually served snacks are best as they are easy to serve. Please also provide napkins. Note: As we have some food allergies in our grade, please make sure not to send in any food containing note products.