Welcome to First Grade!

Monday Memo 1st Edition

Mrs. Baird

August 25, 2015

Dear First Grade Parents,

Welcome to the new school year at Our Lady of Good Counsel! I have the pleasure of being of being your child’s first grade teacher. I am very excited about this upcoming year. I am looking forward to showing your child how much fun learning can be.

Please plan to attend our Back to School Night. This meeting is designed to explain many aspects of our time at school such as classroom procedures, your child’s daily academic schedule, the homework policy and any other questions you may have. Until then, I hope the following information will help make the beginning of school a little easier for you and you child.

Wiki Page/Monday Memo – the Monday Memo is like the weekly newsletter. I post on the Wiki page. It is usually written over the weekend and posted Sunday night. Please become familiar with the Wiki page. I post everything there. There is a homework page that has all the homework for the week listed there. I post copies of things that I send home. I put the spelling list and high frequency words there too. When in doubt, check my wiki page.

Copybooks: The Copybooks which will be purchased at school through the teacher for $7.00 will be used as follows:

H-Homework Copybooks: There are two. When one is completed a second one will be issued. This usually occurs late winter, early spring. Certain homework assignments will be completed in this book. Other homework assignments will be found in your child’s folder.

J-Journal Copybook: In this copybook, the children will be learning the writing process. They will create their own stories. I usually give them some type of writing prompt which comes from the reading series, religion lesson and sometimes even the math unit.

M-Math journal: this is to be used in accordance with our math books. There are many times when the math lesson lends itself to using something other than worksheets. Now the students will have a place to do this work and you will be able to see the continuity along with the workbook pages.

School Books: As the school books begin to come home, please make sure that they are covered and labeled with your child’s name and room number. This label should be placed on the top right hand corner of the front cover. The children find it easier to recognize specific books when they are covered with clear contact paper- especially at the beginning if the school year when everything is a bit overwhelming for them. The clear contact paper also helps keep the books intact and more durable through the year. It is not absolutely necessary to do so, however, because I fully understand that it is expensive and oftentimes hard to find as the stores run out of it quickly, I leave this to your judgment. If you prefer to use the brown paper bags, have your child draw some symbols on the front to help in finding the correct book when asked to do so in class. Ex. A cross on the Religion book, some math facts on the math book, etc/ it is not necessary to cover the reading textbook.

This will be the third year using this math series. Homework pages are in this book. There is not a separate workbook. Your child’s math homework will be torn out of the book each day. Please check the wiki page daily for the exact homework page to be completed.

Mid=Morning Snacks: Please provide a small food snack (apple slices, carrots, granola bar… NO CANDY!) for your child to eat at our 10 AM snack break. Please do not provide a drink for this quick break; the children have access to the water fountain. Children are welcome to bring in water bottles but we will discuss as a class how often they may be used.

Activity Fee/Supplies: To cover the cost of activity supplies for the entire year, we need to ask for a $5.00 cash activity fee per child. Please send to school in an envelope marked with you child’s name whenever you can. This fee is out towards Christmas activities, gifts and special events such as Mother’s Day. This is NOT the same as the art fee for Mrs. Mitchell.

Thank you for your kind attention and cooperation in these matters. I look forward to working with you and your child this school year. I have tried to think of everything to make your child’s first weeks of first grade comfortable and less stressful. Please do not hesitate to contact me whenever you have any questions or concerns. I like to work closely with parents so together we can provide the framework for a very successful year. The best way to reach me is through email. My current address is