First Grade Chinese Immersion Back To School Night

Meet Mrs. Furlong I am excited to be your teacher! A little bit about me: I am an identical twin Lived in Utah my whole life Traveled all over the country Have 4 sons and 1 daughter My husband and I have 5 wonderful grandsons! Taught for 16 years (K-2) Have a Masters Degree in Elementary Education I enjoy reading, sewing, music, dance, and teaching! My Family

Meet Ms. Shao I can’t wait to meet you! A little bit about me: From Taichung, Taiwan Taught Chinese at the MTC for three years Graduated from BYU in Linguistics Masters in Education from National Taichung University of Education EFL teacher for many years Taught Soc. St. and Science in Taiwanese elementary schools. Enjoy calligraphy, playing the Yang qing (a musical instrument), and doing patchwork. I have a husband and two daughters in junior high. My Family

Student of the Week Each week a boy or girl will be spotlighted as our Student of the Week. That child will share with his/her class all about themselves. They will do this in English and in Chinese on the Friday of their special week The booklet will come home the week prior to their Star week. A schedule will be coming home the first day of school and will be posted on Mrs. Furlong’s website. All About Me Booklet

Birthday! On or around your child’s Birthday they will receive a Birthday surprise from Mrs. Furlong and Ms. Shao. Each class will sing Happy Birthday as well. If your child does not have a birthday during the school year, this will happen on the week that they are the “Student of the Week”. If you choose to send a snack to celebrate your child’s birthday, please make sure it is purchased and if possible individually wrapped. All birthday treats will be given out the last 15 minutes of the school day.

Mrs. Furlong’s Daily Schedule

Ms. Shao’s Daily Schedule

Yearly Schedule Green and Blue Classes Because our First Graders seem to retain more in the morning we will be switching English and Chinese times every term. Term 1: The Green class will start the day with Mrs. Furlong and the Blue class will start with Ms. Shao. We will switch morning for afternoon each term. These dates will be: November 2 nd – Term 2 January 20 th - Term 3 April 4 th – Term 4

Weekly Homework English Homework for Mrs. Furlong’s class will be weekly homework packets and sent home in the Folders on Monday. The homework packet/folder will need to be returned the following Friday. Leveled Readers can be checked out from Mrs. Furlong’s classroom each Friday. Students will be allowed to check out two books and then return them the following Friday with their homework packet each week. Chinese Homework is on line and is to be done once a week. More information will come on how to access this. o Students will record themselves speaking Mandarin on VOKI. Multi –Use Folders – Folders come home with important information EVERY TUESDAY from the school. – Please send the folders back on WEDNESDAY (the next day).

Attendance First Grade is FULL of hands on experiences. These experiences can not be recreated, or sent home, in case of absences. THIS IS WHY ATTENDANCE IS SO IMPORTANT! We understand that sickness, and emergencies happen. Please do not send your student to school sick. However, please make every effort to have them at school ON TIME, EVERY DAY!

Weekly Assessments FRIDAY ATTENDANCE IS VITAL! – We assess students every Friday in multiple areas that we have been working on during the week. Language Arts Assessment Spelling Test – The words that are sent home on Monday will be tested on Friday. Math Skills Quiz We include practice for these assessments in the weekly homework packet. Weekly Assessments are almost impossible to make up. Please make sure that your student is in class ALL DAY on Friday.

Volunteers WE NEED YOUR HELP IN THE CLASSROOM!! – In order for your child to have the best experience in First Grade, we need all of the help we can get! – ***Literacy Centers and Guided Reading*** 10:50-11:20 am and 2:50-3:20 pm – **Math Help for Chinese Class** Tuesday and Thursday 9:00-10:00am and 2:00-3:00pm Volunteers will be working 1 on 1 with students in English If you can help in any way, we would really appreciate it. There are lots of ways to volunteer. Please let us know if you are available to help.

Classroom Rules Follow Directions Quickly! Raise your hand for permission to speak. Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat. Make Smart Choices! Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe, Keep you teacher happy! Have fun learning! During the Chinese portion of the day there is a strict “No English Spoken” policy. Your Child is breaking the rules if he/she speaks English.

Behavior Management Positive Individual – Stickers and charts (Chinese) Students collect stickers and full sticker charts to purchase classroom prizes. Positive Classroom (English) – Work towards classroom/table points for rewards Individual Behavior (English) – Color Rang: Everyday students start at Green Positive Behavior moves up the color scale. Each color moved up gives them choices of free activities to do each day at recess. Negative behavior moves down the color scale. If yellow card is pulled five minutes of recess is lost. If student moves to red a whole recess is lost to fill out a note that will be sent home. This note MUST be signed and returned the next day or the student will miss an additional recess.(See following slide.) – Multiple verbal warnings are given before moving to red.

Red Behavior Note

School Wide Behavior Management Syracuse Elementary has a school wide aggressive behavior management plan. This can be found on the school website. – This behavior management plan will be used for aggressive behavior and override our card system. – The Syracuse Elementary Aggressive Behavior Management Plan is generally handled by the administration.

Communication Weekly newsletters will be sent home in the Folders with the Monday homework packet. Monthly newsletters will be sent home each month and on our website. See our webpage for address Phone: – We are at the school from 8:00-4:00 if you need to contact us. – You may be asked to leave a message and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Donations If you would like to donate items to our classroom. These are the items we need: Glue Sticks Hand Sanitizer Tissues Clorox Wipes Ziploc Baggies Small Treasure Box Prizes

Thank You! Thank you for all the hard work that you have already put into your child’s education! We look forward to working with you and your child to move forward in the development of their academic, language and social skills ! We are excited for a great school year!