Junction City Elementary School

Ms. Carter’s Kindergarten Parent Handbook

Junction City Elementary School 2014-2015 Dear family,

My name is Holly Carter and I will be your child’s Kindergarten teacher this year. I am a graduate of Boyle County High School, and the University of Kentucky where I have a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Elementary Education. I will graduate this summer with my Teacher Leader Master of Arts in Special Education. I am also the Assistant Volleyball Coach for Boyle County High School. When I am not teaching or coaching, I enjoy volunteering at my church, walking my dog, reading, and spending time with my family and friends. Sherry Hensley is our Instructional Assistant in this class. She loves working with children and will be a big help in our classroom!

Kindergarten is a very important year in a child’s academic career because it is one of their first impressions of school and how they feel about learning. I teach using a lot of hands-on activities to keep the children interested and actively engaged. Your child will learn their letters, numbers, shapes, colors, how to read and write and much more! We will also have a lot of exciting events this year including field trips, plays, and special days like Pajama Day.

If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact me. I am available by phone or email, but the best way to reach me is by email. I look forward to working with you and your child! We are going to have a great year!

Sincerely, Holly Carter [email protected] (859) 936-7524 Ext. 2115 Ms. Carter’s Class Schedule

7:40-8:00 – Morning Work, Lunch Count, and Attendance

8:00-8:30 – Calendar

8:30-8:40 – Bathroom Break

8:40-9:15 – Skills Block

9:15-9:45 – Writing

9:45-10:56 – Reading

10:56-11:22 – Lunch

11:22-11:40 – Bathroom Break & Educational Songs

11:40-12:30 – Special Activity Class Monday – Music Tuesday – Art Wednesday – Library Thursday – Spanish Friday – Gym

12:30-1:45 – Math

1:45- 2:00 – Recess

2:00-2:30 – Math Workshop

* Schedules and times may vary throughout the year as the students’ abilities and needs change.

Review Friday – Reading – 10:00-11:00am, Math – 12:30 – 1:45pm Morning Procedures: Upon arrival, all students will enter through the front doors of the school. All students will go to the cafeteria. Parents who wish to eat with their child must sign in and receive a visitor’s tag. Parents will be asked to say goodbye in the lobby. After reviewing policies of morning procedures of schools in our district and surrounding counties, we feel that this policy needed to be put in place to ensure the safety of all of our students. At 7:40am all students will walk to their classrooms. Staff members will be in the hallway to monitor students. Instruction will begin at 7:50am.

Walking Your Child to the Room (August only) If you bring your child to school in the morning, and they would like you to walk them to the classroom that is fine, however, we ask that you please say goodbye to your child at the door. This teaches responsibility and gives them ownership in the classroom. The children will quickly become independent and it will be easier for everyone to separate. You will no longer be allowed to walk your child to the room after August 31st.

Pick-up and Drop-off Information School doors open at 7:20am and breakfast is served until 7:40am. Students will be released from the cafeteria at 7:40am to go to their classrooms and instruction will begin at 7:50am.

Car riders can be picked up at 2:50pm everyday. You MUST have a car rider tag to pick up your child. If you do not have a car rider tag you must park and come in to the school to sign your child out. Any time your child is picked up early or arrives late, you must go through the office. If a child is checking in late, you must take them to the office first so they can be counted present for the day. After checking in, the student may come to the classroom. If your child needs to be picked up early, the office will notify the classroom and I will send them to the office. I cannot dismiss a child from my room unless I am told to do so by the office.

If a child usually rides a bus but is going to be picked up one day, I must have a note to allow the child to do this. If not, I have to put them on the bus as usual. This is also true if a child is normally picked up but needs to ride the bus one day.

Attendance Good attendance is very important in Kindergarten. New skills are learned daily and students can get behind very quickly if they have poor attendance. Students who are continually tardy miss the same subject each day. Please make sure your child is at school on time so that they do not miss out on important learning. Students who do not miss a day of school all year will be recognized at the end-of-the-year assembly.

Data Notebooks Each student will have an individual data notebook to monitor their social skills and content knowledge. I will meet with each student once a month to update their data notebooks. We will review the data during parent conferences. Behavior Management In my classroom we try to focus on positive behavior and reward the positive instead of focusing on the negative. Several times throughout the day, I will reward children with stickers when I catch them being helpful or following directions.

We will also have a “compliment chain” in the classroom hanging from the ceiling. Each time the class receives a compliment we will add a link to our chain. When the chain reaches the floor, we will celebrate.

All students are expected to follow the school and classroom rules. Our classroom rules are: 1. Listen when your teacher is talking. 2. Follow directions quickly. 3. Keep your hands and feet to yourself. 4. Raise your hand to speak or stand. 5. Be safe, be kind, be honest.

In addition to the school and classroom rules, our school has adopted the clip up/clip down behavior management system. Each child will begin their day on green, which means they are ready to learn. Students who make good choices throughout the day will have the opportunity to clip up to good job, great job, and/or outstanding. Students who are not making good choices will clip down to slow down, time out, and/or parent contact/visit to the office. Students who clip down can turn their day around by making good choices. If I notice they are working hard to make good choices and do the right thing then they will be able to clip up. I want to make sure every child knows they can always change their behavior and turn their day around.

Behaviors that might result in clipping down include:  Talking while the teacher is talking  Not following directions  Not keeping hands and feet to themselves  Unsafe behavior  Disrespectful behavior or language  Inappropriate bathroom behavior (yelling, screaming, playing in water)  Inappropriate cafeteria behavior (yelling, playing with food, not staying in their seat, etc.)  Inappropriate hallway behavior (running, skipping, etc.)  Inappropriate behavior in a special area class (talking, misbehaving, etc.)  Inappropriate behavior on the playground (throwing mulch, pushing, etc.)

There are also rewards for GOOD behavior! If your child demonstrates one of the following they will clip up:  Being kind to a friend  Using polite words  Helping another student or the teacher  Being a good listener/Raising their hand all day

Rainbow Behavior Each child will also be trying to build a Rainbow of good behavior. All students who have ended their day on “ready to learn” or higher will get a color to put on their rainbow. On Friday, all students that have at least four colors on their rainbow will be allowed to choose a treat from the class Treasure Box. When a child clips all the way up to “outstanding” they will get a special purple piece for their rainbow!

Homework Policy Your child will bring home a reading log once a month. It will be sent home the first day of the month and needs to be returned on the last day of the month. Please read 2-3 books with your child each day. If you lose the reading log, you may write the titles of the books on another sheet of paper. After returning a completed reading log each month, your child will receive a food certificate (ex. free kids pizza) or other reward. Other homework assignments will be sent home each Monday with the newsletter. Please have your child complete the assigned activities and return them each Friday. Homework completion is a grade on your child’s report card. Students will receive a check mark each time they return homework on time. Sending Money to School Throughout the school year, there will be Kona Ice, Book Fairs, Field Trips, and other events that will require students to bring in money. All money must be in a zip lock bag or envelope with your child’s name on it. It is also a good idea to write how much money is in the bag and what the money is to be used for. With approximately 20 students in the class, money can be lost/misplaced if it does not have a name on it.

Recess We will have a 20 minute recess every afternoon. We usually take a short recess in the morning for the first week of school just because the kids are not use to a whole day of school yet. Students are usually more comfortable outside if they wear tennis shoes to school. We expect all students to follow the playground rules so that all children are safe. Kindergarten students are not to play in the baby swings, on the monkey bars, or on the yellow spiral.

Home/School Folder Your child will bring home their home/school folder everyday. The folder will include papers that they have completed throughout the day, newsletters, field trip forms, special announcements, etc. Please check your child’s folder every night. Please take the papers out and send the empty folder back to school. If you have any notes or completed forms for me, please place those in the folder so that I will get them the following day. Thank you! Special Student To get to know each student at the beginning of the year, each child will have a day where they will be the special student of the day! We will draw a name each day, interview the student, draw pictures of the student and practice writing their name. At the end of the day, they will get to take home a book of all the drawings from their classmates.

MAP Assessments Students will take the MAP reading and math tests three times this year. This is a test that students Kindergarten - 5th grade take in Boyle County. It is done completely on the computer. The kids have a hard time in August clicking their answers but get much better in December and May. There are two reading tests and two math tests. The tests show me what I need to work on with each child as well as their strengths in reading and math. I will be with them when they take the test and I will encourage them to do their best and go slow.

Grading Scale/Report Cards The following grading scale will be used: E Excellent S Satisfactory N Needs Improvement U Unsatisfactory

Report cards are sent home four times a year. Please see the Boyle County Schools calendar on the Boyle County website (www.boyle.kyschools.us) for the dates that report cards will be sent home. Parent Conferences We will have at least one parent conference during the school year. The conference will take place during the school day on a day that students are out of school. We will discuss test results, your child’s schoolwork, behavior, praises, and any concerns.

Birthday Parties In Kindergarten we feel that birthdays are very special. If you would like to send cupcakes or a special treat for the class to celebrate your child’s birthday please notify me a week in advance by sending a note to school. If you would like to be there to celebrate, please notify me of that in your note so that I can let you know a time that fits into our schedule. If your child is having a birthday party outside of school and you want to send invitations home for the entire class, I will put them in their mailboxes. Our school specifies that each child must have an invitation if they are sent home through school.

If you plan to bring treats for your child’s birthday, you may plan on bringing 20 of whatever it is you’d like to bring. We will sing Happy Birthday to each birthday child regardless of whether or not they bring a treat. So don’t think that if you don’t send a treat, we won’t celebrate somehow. 

Holiday Parties We are allowed to celebrate two holidays a year with a party. Our school celebrates Valentine’s Day and Christmas. We welcome you to come to these parties and volunteer by helping with food, set-up, clean-up, etc. If you would like to send in treats for other holidays (Halloween, Easter, etc.) we will pass them out. Thank you in advance for your help!  Field Trips We will take approximately 2-3 field trips this year. We welcome parents to come with us to chaperone. At the beginning of the year you need to complete a Parent Chaperone and Volunteer form if you have a desire to go on any field trip throughout the year. Every person must have this filled out so that a background check can be completed. You will not be able to chaperone a trip or volunteer if this form is not completed and returned to us from the state in time for the field trip. On field trips we like for parents to be in charge of 2-3 children (this group will include your child). We expect the best behavior from all children on field trips. If your child does not behave in your group they will be with me for the day. Thank you in advance for your help. 

Class Newsletter Our class newsletter will be sent home each Monday. It will include information about upcoming events, what is going on in the classroom, what we are studying, and important dates to remember. Our principal, Mrs. Shunk, will also send home a school newsletter every Friday.

Book Orders I will send home a Scholastic book order approximately every other month. It has excellent books for Kindergarten children at reasonable prices. If you would like to order books please send in cash or checks made to Scholastic. Every time you order books for home we get free books for our classroom!  Volunteers If you would like to volunteer at JCES, you must complete a Parent/Chaperone Volunteer Form and return it with an envelope and $10.00 cash or money order. Every person must have this filled out so that a background check can be completed.

I am looking forward to a great year! Thank you in advance for all of your help as we work together to help your child have a great first year in school.