Welcome to Mrs. Williams’ First Grade Class! Please make sure to go through this welcome packet with your child. A Note to Families Welcome to Tobacco Road Elementary! We have incredibly high academic and behavioral expectations for our students and hope that you do, too! We truly believe that it takes a village to raise a child. Therefore, we hope that you will view your child’s teacher as a partner in his or her education and know that we ALWAYS have your child’s best interest at heart. At Tobacco Road, we do not hesitate to call parents for updates about your child’s day, news or just to say “hello.” We want to work with you, so please keep us informed if there is ever a special tip or information you would like to share with us about your child. After all, nobody knows him or her better than you do! Thank you for your support and I look forward to an amazing year! -Mrs. Williams Student Backpack and Homework Folder Please make sure that your child comes to school each day with his/her backpack and homework trip folder. At Tobacco Road we strongly believe that students must learn responsibility by managing their homework folders. We recommend you and your child review school work and other pieces of communication on a daily basis. Your child’s homework folder is given at the beginning of the year. The left side should be labeled “Leave at Home” and the right side, “Bring Back to School.” The right side will contain homework, permission slips and other items that need to be brought back to school. The left will contain graded homework, calendars and notes that you should keep at home. Please make sure to empty the left side each night before your child returns to school the following day. If your child loses his/her folder during the year, please be sure to get a replacement or talk to me about getting one. It is very helpful to have a backpack large enough to easily accommodate papers, books, etc.

Classroom Communication Classroom newsletters and calendars will be sent out about once a month; these will be sent to you via Homework Folder. Please make your email address available to Mrs. Williams, as that is a great way to communicate about your child’s progress and behavior. Daily Schedule Our day is broken into various blocks of time. During these blocks we work on Language Arts, Math, Readers/Writers Workshop, Science and Social Studies. The first block, which is the most important, is our Morning Meeting- make sure to ask your child about this very fun and educational time in our day. In between these blocks of time your child will go to “specials.” Your child will attend Physical Education and Music class daily. During Physical Education, your child will need “gym shoes.” Grading Policy For 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Quarter students are assessed on a 1-4 scale based on the GA State Standards. First Grade Homework and Grading Homework is sent home every single day and is due the following day. It is my policy to give each student about one page of math homework and a spelling task each night. Please help your child with this daily, if possible, and encourage him or her to complete the work at a consistent time that works for your family. Routine is key! Please also make sure to have glue, scissors, pencils, and crayons available for your child’s homework- if this is a problem, just contact me and I’ll find some for you. In addition to that homework, students should be read to for a minimum of 20 minutes at home each night. Statistics show that children who are read to by a family member daily, end up reading better, writing better and have more financial success in life, than those who are not. Once your child is in the habit of doing this daily, this will become second nature to him or her and you will come back and thank me (I promise)!

First Grade Homework Make-Up Due to the nature of the activities that occur in kindergarten, many cannot be replicated outside the classroom setting. If it is necessary to miss school we do encourage students to keep journals, read or be read to, and practice mathematical observations, concepts, and skills while on vacation. When possible, we will send home worksheets or paper activities that a child has missed due to travel or illness. All available make-up homework is due within 2 school days of returning from the absence. Please communicate with your child’s teacher about absences in advance and make-up work. Attendance First Grade is the most important year! I cannot stress this enough. Please make sure that your child is at school daily and is taking their education seriously, we teachers sure do. If they aren’t now, why should they in 10 years? So, we ask you, as the adult, to please emphasize the importance of being at school daily and having plenty of sleep (First Graders require 10-12 hours of sleep per night). Thank you for your help in this vital area. Arrival/Departure It is imperative that your child arrives to school on time and does not leave early. Please make sure that your child is not tardy as the first hour of the day is the most important. Also, please do not pick up your child early, unless they have an appointment, as it disrupts the entire class. Thank you for helping your child stay on schedule. Car riders will be dismissed from the gym. All other transportation will be dismissed from the cafeteria. Please DO NOT pick up your child near the buses, as it leaves room for injury and accidents. Please note that school staff can not send your child home with someone else for play dates etc. unless we have written permission from you. Students Arriving Early For a variety of reasons, e.g. meetings, conferences, and tasks that need to be done to prepare for the school day, staff is not available for student supervision prior to 8:00am. Thanks for understanding and for allowing staff to do what they need to do to meet the needs of students.

Birthdays Toys Field Trips Conferences In our room you are encouraged to provided cupcakes for the students during lunch. Our scheduled lunch time is 11:30-12:00. Please contact the teacher if you need to schedule another time to celebrate you child’s birthday. Toys Please help your child remember that toys are to stay at home. Toys in the classroom tend to be a distraction to learning, and can be lost or broken. Students are not allowed to bring toys from home unless specifically asked to by their teacher. Field Trips Field trips occur periodically throughout the year. Unfortunately not every parent can attend every field trip. There is always a chaperone option with the permission slip, feel free to fill out and Mrs. Williams will contact you if you are needed. Please do not show up to a field trip unless you have been explicitly contacted by Mrs. Williams. Thank you. Conferences Conferences occur throughout the year, as noted on our school calendar. If you cannot make that time, please let Mrs. Williams know in advance so that she may send your child’s assessments home for you to look over. Contact Information 706-796-4658 willibr@boe.richmond.k12.ga.us