WELCOME TO… Mrs. Nowak’s Back-To-School Night: Thursday September 15, 2011

Room parents: April Hausfeld and Meggan De Jesus Sign-ups: *Everybody Counts - volunteers needed – training on Monday, October 10 (presentations during the week of November 7-11) *Halloween Party: Monday, 10/31 from 2:00-3 *Winter Party: Friday, 12/16 from 2:00-3 *Valentine’s Day Party: Tuesday, 2/14 from 2:00-3 *End-of-the-Year Field Day: Friday, 6/8 *Party Photographers on the above stated dates – please send in a cd (or upload onto Snapfish.com) so that all parents can view them Zoo Field Trip- date: TBD (usually in May) – will send out an for volunteers to chaperone

Staff Kindergarten Teacher – Mrs. Nowak Speech and Language Therapist – Mrs. McGee DIBELS Intervention – Mrs. Keller Additional Intervention – Ms. Albanese Special Needs – Mrs. Ford Specials Classes Art – Mrs. Williamson (Monday) PE – Mrs. Shively (Tuesday and Thursday) Music – Ms. Cornett (Wednesday and Friday) Library – Mrs. Burgess (Wednesday)

School Expectations: I will respect myself and my friends. I will respect my teachers and other adults. I will respect my classroom and my school. Hand Signals: “show me: quiet, stop, wait a minute and good job”. Never underestimate the power of a high 5 or pat on the back!!! Reminders: If you’re not helping the situation, you’re hurting it. There is a good choice, a poor choice…but its always MY choice. Good people make good choices even when no one is wathcing. ***Time outs are equivalent to age.***

Schedules and Routines –Weekly – Stays consistent from week to week –Daily – combination of whole group, small group and individual work Workboard Centers Partners

Kindergarten Curriculum –Social Studies Our School Expectations (focusing on RESPECT) –Math Hands-on Snack tie-ins –Science Hands-on Inquiry Based –Language Arts Phonemic Awareness, Phonics and Kindergarten Spelling vs. Dictionary Spelling Sight Word Vocabulary and Patterns within our language Comprehension Reader’s Workshop/Writer’s Workshop Sorting, patterning, counting, skip counting, estimating, measuring, graphing, data collection, graphing, etc. Senses, colors, space/laws, earth, living/nonliving, animals and plants

Volunteers and Snack Sign-ups –Parent Training Night – tentatively Tuesday, 6:30;*PLEASE sign-up before leaving* –Every day of the week beginning 10/19 from 10:50-12 with the option to take your child out for lunch from 12-1 –Sign-ups (for both snacks and volunteering) will be available outside our classroom and are posted online…just me with dates you are interested in (unfortunately, the calendars are not interactive). -bin/homepage.pl?id=bootesb It is OK if we do not have a volunteer every day!!!

Assessments –K-RAL (conducted at the screening) –DIBELS –Running Records (Reading) –Observational Reports (Writing, Math, Science and SS) Conferences and Report Cards –First Quarter 20 Minute Conferences scheduled for Tues, November 15 *Please sign-up before leaving –Second Quarter Report Cards distributed on Tuesday, January 31 –Third Quarter Conferences (Date TBA) – usually in May/closer to end of the year –share year’s progress and summer suggestions –Fourth Quarter Report Cards distributed on Friday, June 8 (if no fines)

Classroom Website and Newsletters – x.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_ id=1http:// x.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_ id=1 Links, Files and possibly Blogs –Newsletters – will be ed every week (or every other week) –Monthly photo albums sent through Snapfish.com –Scholastic Book Orders and Highlights Magazine Orders please return no later than Friday, September 23 – they will go home tomorrow with the first homework ***we get TONS of extra bonus points for Sept. Scholastic orders and over 2500 FREE stickers with the Highlights forms***

Homeworks *Kids receive a “prize” at the start of each set…usually pens* PLEASE encourage your child to write his/her name with the first letter capital and the rest lowercase AND follow the correct motions. –Set 1 – Handwriting Practice –Set 2 – Letter Recognition, Beginning Sounds and Comprehension –Set 3 – Sight Word Recognition and Sentence Writing –Set 4 – Easy Reader passages focusing on comprehension skills

–Set 1 Letter Recognition Handwriting practice (motions rather than lines, move left to right/top to bottom) Write words on the back that contain the letters practiced

–Set 2 Letter Recognition/Search (moving left/right and top/bottom) Beginning Sounds Highlighting Comprehension through Illustrations Write words on the back that begin with the letter of that page

–Set 3 Sight Word Vocabulary Practice Combination of Kdg. and Dictionary Spelling Sentence Structure (including first letter capital, spacing and punctuation) Write additional sentences on the back containing the sight word

–Set 4 Easy Reader Passages Corresponding Comprehension Questions Write the answers in complete sentences while rephrasing the ?

Questions??? Thank you so much for joining me this evening for our Back-To-School Night!!! I am so excited about this year and hope to have answered some of your questions. If you ever have any questions, comments or concerns please contact me at or through voic at Please remember to sign up for our Volunteer Training Night, parties and Conferences before leaving tonight.