Dear Families,
Welcome to First Grade! I hope everyone had a great summer. Are you as excited about starting school as I am? To help the first week to go smoothly, I thought I would send this information home early so the whole family can be ready for the first week of school.
School Supplies:
I know you have been busy picking out everything needed for school. Please put your student’s name or initials on their supplies. (A permanent marker works best.) Students will be keeping their supplies in their desks. Here’s a list of what will be needed and a few helpful hints. Purchase 5-8 boxes of pencils and then send one box a month (Pencils get sharpened a lot in first grade!), Kleenex, glue sticks (keep some at home to send often), I bottle liquid white glue, 24 count crayons, erasers, scissors, colored pencils, and a backpack. Please do not send a school box, I will be providing one for your student. Also put their names in any coats, sweaters or sweatshirts that might get taken off at recess or PE.
Classroom Supplies:
To help keep our room clean and germ level low, I am asking families to send in baby wipes or cleaning wipes.
“I don’t like school”:
The first month of first grade is a huge transition for your student. You may hear this during the first month. Just think, last year students were at school for 2 ½ hours, now they’re here for 6 hours. In that 6 hours they are learning new routines for recess, walking in the hall, checking out books, P.E., Music, computer lab, math, reading and lunch. They are also learning the personalities and expectations of 25 classmates and at least 6 different teachers. Then there is no nap time and all these rules to follow. It’s a big adjustment. If your student decides they don’t like school, this is normal. Keep being positive about all the fun things that go on at school and soon school will be a fun place again.
Lunch:
For those of you who are not familiar with our lunch system, your student has an account and each lunch is debited from that account. If your student is going to eat hot lunch, please have them drop off money in the morning. It makes lunch time run much smoother.
Going Home:
Please make sure your student knows how they are getting home the first day and the days following. I suggest checking with your student each morning for a week or two on how they are suppose to go home. I know that we have many older siblings, if your student is going to meet their sibling, please have them meet up front by the couch or the bike racks. I walk the entire class down the hall to the front of the building so there is no adult supervision in the classroom at that time. I’ve included a form to help me know where to send students for the first week.
Volunteering:
I will have our volunteering schedule up at Open House for parents to sign up. There will be mostly morning and a few afternoon times. I will begin volunteers in October. Some of the volunteer positions are helping kids work on reading, helping me during our technology class, assembly Thursday Folders and a memory book project. There are other times were volunteers will be needed for special projects or field trips. Please make sure to have your background check done early in the year so you can join us whenever you have time!
Interview Sheet:
Enclosed is an interview sheet to help me get to know the student’s and their families better. Please fill it out and return it the first day of school.
Family Picture:
In our classroom, we have a place for everyone to hang a 4x6 or smaller picture of their family. If you could send one to hang up that would be a great addition to our room.
R.A.H:
Our school has a daily reading at home program. It is amazing how much this daily reading at home has helped students improve their reading. Every month I will set a goal for how much a student is to read at home daily. This is a minimum; please feel free to go over the time if your child is enjoying reading. I will be checking in with students daily about their at home reading. Please know I understand that some days it’s hard to fit in time to read but I promise to keep the time length reasonable. Also the reading could be someone reading to your student, your student reading to someone, or your student reading on their own.
The Teacher:
My name is Meredith White. I have been a teacher for Salem-Keizer Public Schools since 1996. I have a B.A. is Elementary Education from Linfield College, a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from Portland State and a Reading Endorsement from Willamette University. In the last several years I have become very interested in integrating technology in the classroom.
My husband, Brian, is the Base Civil Engineer for the Portland Air Base and a major in the 142nd Fighter Wing, Oregon Air National Guard. We have 2 and a half year old twins, Callie and Nicholas, who constantly keep us on our toes! We live in Woodburn with our two cats and a German Shorthair Pointer. We love to camp and read.
Getting hold of the teacher:
You can reach me at 503-399-5548. You can also reach me by email: white_meredith@salkeiz.k12.or.us
Enjoy that last couple weeks of vacation and I’ll see you September 7 !
*****************************************************************************************************
Please fill out and send with your student! Thanks!!
Child's Name: ______________________________
Address Child Goes to After School: _________________________________________________
Phone Where Parent Can Be Reached: ______________________________________________
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Bus_____ Bus _____ Bus ______ Bus ______ Bus ______
Walk ______ Walk _____ Walk ______ Walk ______ Walk _____
Pick up ______ Pick up ______ Pick up _____ Pick up ______ Pick up ______
Other: ________ Other: ________ Other: ________ Other: ________ Other: ________
______________ ______________ ______________ ______________ ______________
