Dear Parents and Students,

We are looking forward to this new school year. There are lots of new things to be learned and new friends to be made.

    Our goal for this year is to help your child to be an independent and responsible learner, as well as, to show him or her how to make responsible choices. To accomplish this goal, there will be regular homework and we will be making the most of our class time. Our expectations for the students this year will be high. They will need to work hard and do their best.

Language Arts:  Reading is very important!  Our goal for this year is for your child to be reading on a level J by the end of 1^st Grade. We will be providing plenty of opportunities to read in the classroom. Please read with your child as much as possible. In Language Arts, we will be covering the following topics:

• Formation and sound of ALL upper and lowercase letters
• Glued Sounds (-all, -an –am, -ang, -ing, -ong, -ung, -ank, ink, onk, unk)
• Segmenting and blending short syllable words
• Inflected endings (-s, -ed, -ing)
• Long Vowels
• Vowel Teams
• Writing (narrative, informative, opinion)
• Capitalization, spaces, punctuation in sentences
• Power words (words that they should be able to write on sight, ex: I, like, the, and)
• Retelling a story
• Comparing and Contrasting
• Story Elements (Setting, Characters, Events)
• Sequence of Events 

Math:  Below are Math topics that will be covered in 1^st Grade

• Formation of numbers 1-120
• Adding and subtracting 1-20
• Comparing numbers
• 1 more, 1 less, 10 more, 10 less
• Adding and subtracting on a Number line
• Adding and subtracting on a Hundreds Chart
• Doubles/ Near Doubles
• 2D and 3D shapes
• Measurement
• Time to the hour/half hour
• Equal shares

Important paper work: Please make sure you complete the following forms before your child comes to school in September. Failure to complete some paperwork may delay your child from being able to come to school in September

• Medical forms for the nurse (students will not be allowed to come to school without this form)
• Transportation information (please provide information for how your child will be going home daily to the front office)
• Emergency contact forms (needs to be filled out for the front office)

Homework:  Homework will be used as a guide to see what areas your child may excel or need extra help in. Homework should take no longer than 30 minutes in 1^st grade.  If it is taking longer than this to complete the homework with your child, please let us know immediately. Also, please check your child’s folder on a nightly basis for any papers.  We only give Language Arts and Math homework.  Your child may receive work to finish if he/she did not finish it throughout the school day.

Technology:  Students will have the opportunity to use classroom interactive Smartboards and iPads on a daily basis. 

Behavior:  PCSST has a very strict behavior policy.  All Kindergarten teachers have a “traffic light/color” method.  For example: green- good day, yellow/orange- there were some issues, red- bad behavior day.  You will be notified on daily basis about your child’s behavior.

Breakfast: Breakfast is served to all 1^st grade students.

Snacks:  We will have a 15-minute snack daily. If you child has allergies or special snack requirements – please send snack in with your child daily. Whatever snack the school provides is what will be given to the students (no exceptions)

Lunch:  Please make sure you have filled out the lunch application on the website for your child’s lunch or you may pick one up from the secretaries. You also have the option of sending in a lunch from home with your child.

Dismissal: Monday Dismissal 2:35 pm. Tuesday – Friday 3:20 pm. If there is an early dismissal it will be at 12:30 pm. If you are picking up your child, please make sure you are on time every day. Whoever is picking up your child should be on your child’s emergency contact list, teachers and secretaries cannot release your child to someone who is not on the emergency contact list.

Uniform:  Students are expected to wear the maroon PCSST short/long sleeve polo, khaki school pants, PCSST maroon sweater, and brown, blue or black dress shoes. Please make sure you put your child’s name in their sweaters!

We encourage you to please contact us any time you have a question or a concern.  We look forward to a year filled with great new learning experiences.  We are very pleased to have your children in our classes.  Looking forward to working with you and your child!

Sincerely,

Meet our team:

1A Ms. Sanian bailey-sanian.bailey@pcsst.org 

1B Mrs. Victoria Rossi victoria.rossi@pcsst.org

1C Mr. Paul Scully paul.scully@pcsst.org 

1D Ms. Meg geisser-meg.geisser@pcsst.org

1E Mrs. Geraldine rojas-geraldine.rojas@pcsst.org

1F Mrs. Janene ellis-janene.ellis@pcsst.org