Grade K1

Kindergarten 1

Kindergarten 1 Policies and Procedures

Communication

Each child has a Notice Folder for communication between home and school. Please check your child's backpack each night for the folder, take out all notices and work from the day, and return it to school with any completed forms or notes.

The best way to communicate with me is to write a note and put it in your child's backpack. You may also send e-mail or phone.

Birthdays

We will be celebrating birthdays by having parents join our class as a special birthday reader. If your child has a summer birthday you may celebrate on his/her half birthday or in June.

On the day of your child’s birthday (or close to the day), you are invited into the classroom as our special birthday reader. We ask that you gift wrap a favorite story of your child’s and bring it to school on his/her special day. You may donate the book to our classroom library or we will return it at the end of the day. Your child will unwrap the surprise book and you will read it to the class. Then we will sing a special song and make a special birthday wish in honor of your child. We are looking forward to hearing many wonderful stories and celebrating with your child.

When your child’s birthday is approaching please send a note so we can schedule a date and time.

School Hours

School begins at 9:25 a.m. If you bring your child to school, please know that teachers are on duty at 9:15 a.m. in the schoolyard. Please do not leave your child unattended before then. Please be sure that your child is on time for school. The K1 walkers are dismissed at 3:05 p.m. in the schoolyard to the right of the school. Please park on Centre Street or Westmount Street so that the buses can safely park on Chapin Avenue.

If your child is going home with the parent of another child for a play date, you must send in a note giving written permission. Similarly, if someone other than the usual person is picking up your child (a neighbor, a relative, etc.) please send in a note. Children will not be allowed to ride a bus home with another child.

Attendance

It is important for your child to attend school every day. If your child is ill (i.e., has a fever, has vomited within the last 24 hours, has a contagious illness, or otherwise does not seem well enough to participate fully in school activities) please do not send him/her to school. If your child will not be in school, please call the school that morning to leave a message. When your child returns to school, please send a note to excuse the absence. If your child is going to be late for school due to a doctor's appointment, please let me know in writing. If you need to pick up your child early from school for an appointment, please write a note and check in with the office when you arrive at school to pick him/her up.

Lunch

Children have lunch and recess from 11:32 a.m. to 12:26 p.m. each day. Lunch boxes or bags should be marked with your child's name. Lunch items should be brought to school in a labeled bag so that they will not be lost in the lunchroom. Remind your child that the lunch you pack is for him/her to eat, not to share with others. If your child is buying a school lunch each day, you are welcome to send lunch money for the week on Monday in an envelope. Lunch costs $2.25 and milk costs $.50. Pizza is served each Friday; you may send pizza money in an envelope. If your child can keep his/her lunch money in a pocket, you are welcome to send it that way as well. The elementary school lunch menu is available online.

Social Curriculum/Classroom Management

We use a social curriculum called the Responsive Classroom. We believe that academic and social learning go hand-in-hand in 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 we talk about what we hope to do in Kindergarten. These rules are reviewed weekly and children assess the aspects of their behavior that they need to work on harder each week. Should children have trouble following the rules (as we all do sometimes), there are logical consequences for their actions. Logical consequences include the following:

	loss of a 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 a 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); and
	"you break it, you fix it" (e.g., if a child rips another child's drawing, the child needs to help mend it, or if a child hurts another child's feelings, the child needs to do something that will make the child feel better).

Should your child have significant difficulty following the rules, we will communicate with you about your child's behavior and work closely with you to help your child make progress toward being a safe and caring member of our class.

Curriculum

Our literacy and mathematics goals are achieved through the use of the following curricula:

	Opening the World of Learning (OWL) for literacy
	Real Math Building Blocks for mathematics

OWL is a comprehensive early literacy program designed for use with young children. Real Math Building Blocks is a program designed to help young children build solid mathematics knowledge and develop thinking and reasoning skills.