WELCOME First Grade Parent Night Wellington Elementary August

WELCOME First Grade Parent Night Wellington Elementary August 21 st , 2013

Ms. Lynn Murphy… *Has taught 22 years: 3 in Kinder and 19 in First. *Is married to Rick, a teacher and coach at Briarhill MS in LISD. Her son, Joel and daughter in law, Kristen, attend medical school in Houston. Her daughter, Molly, teaches 1 st in Northwest ISD. * Loves to swim, garden, spend time with family and her dog, Jonah and watch sports of all kinds.

Ms. Kelli Kallail… *Has taught both 1 st and 2 nd for 20 years. *Is married to Joel and has a daughter. Remy will be going into 6 th grade. *Loves to jog, read, visit different beaches and play with her 4 year old pup Oreo.

Ms. Dana Hawkins… *Has taught for 27 years - 23 in first, 4 in Kinder. *Is married to Don Hawkins. She has a blended family that consists of 5 kids. A 25 year old teaching in LISD, a 23 year old working in Downtown Dallas, 18 and 19 year old sons who go to the University of Arkansas, and a 15 year old son at Marcus. She was born and raised in Dallas and has lots of family here still. Our home is always full of kids and friends coming and going. . *Loves to travel, read, garden, and spend time with her family and friends in Texas and Michigan!

Ms. Lisa Matthews… *Has taught for 17 years - Kindergarten and First grade. *Has 3 terrific boys: Preston is a graduate of OSU and working at Xerox, Garrett is a junior at Colorado Christian University, William is a senior at Flower Mound High School. *Loves to garden, read and play with her dog Justin and Olive, her new kitty!

Ms. Cira Levano… *Has taught for 5 years: 3 in Pre-Kinder and 2 in first grade. *She was born and raised in Peru. She’s married to Antonio and has a sweet 13 year old daughter, Anthuanet. *She loves to spend time with family and friends, likes to travel and play with her dog Ashes.

Ms. Neitheva Calta… * Has taught for 9 years, 2 nd and kinder * Happily married to Cliff Calta and have a daughter Annabella of one year old. * Proud of Mexican heritage and loves spending time with her family, reading and traveling.

Ms. Laura Fackler… *Has taught for 14 years - 1 st, 2 nd and 3 rd. *Is married to Richard and has 2 sweet boys. Grady is 6 ½ and will be a First Grader at WES, and Cole is 2 ½ years old. *Loves to read, cook, travel, play with her 2 dogs (Molly and Sumo), watch sports and spend time with her family!

Daily Schedule • • • School is from 7: 50 – 2: 50. Doors will open at 7: 20. Specials are from 1: 00 -1: 45. Lunch will be from 10: 40 -11: 10 Recess will be from 11: 10 -11: 40. Each individual teacher will have a more detailed schedule of her day posted in the room.

Drop off/pick up First grade parents should pick up their children in the front of the school just past the flagpoles. In the mornings, first graders are to go to the cafeteria and the teacher will meet the class and walk the students to the room.

Lunch Cards/Visitors Lunch is from 10: 40 -11: 10. If you choose to join your little one for lunch you must eat at the tables outside known as the “Cafe’ Wellington” or at the designated “guest” tables in the cafeteria. This is due to space availability during our lunches. Thank you so much for your cooperation and understanding. Please remember you must still check in at the office. Please inform your child’s teacher prior to 9: 00 am if you will be purchasing a lunch in the cafeteria. School lunches cost $2. 20 for students. Snacks and ice cream are extra. If you wish to limit your child’s daily purchases please let Ms. Lori in the lunchroom know and she can place a block on you child’s card. This means that if your child wants an extra snack you can send in the money for it on that day. We advise parents to purchase lunch cards. This cuts down on lost lunch money etc. When your child’s lunch account begins to run low you will be notified by the cafeteria. You may also access your child’s lunch account through the LISD website and our web-link. Your child will receive a cheese sandwich if his or her card becomes negative. Please be diligent about the lunch account. Recess will immediately follow lunch. Please note that it is a school policy that parents and siblings may not join us on the playground for safety reasons. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Homework Every Monday your child will receive homework. The homework needs to be returned by Friday. Homework assignments are important and are a great way for you to review and extend all of the awesome skills your child is learning at school.

Birthdays If you want a “snack” for the students during snack time to celebrate your child’s birthday, please send in a store bought snack with your child in the morning. No cupcakes or food items with icing. Please understand we can not pass out this kind of treat. Individually wrapped items work best. No snacks with nuts or peanuts may be brought. We will make sure the snack is passed out. Also, to avoid hurt feelings, we ask that no party invitations be passed out at school unless every child in the class will be receiving one. (However, you may send birthday invitations to all girls or all boys. ) The same rule applies to Valentine’s Day cards. Please make sure to send plates, napkins, plastic ware, etc. if needed.

Illness and Medication • All medication needs are to be taken to the school nurse.

Daily Calendar and Folder Please initial your child’s calendar each night and return it to school the next morning in the daily folder. The folder may also contain important notes that may be coming home. This is a great way for your child to stay organized and for us to communicate as well.

Newsletters will be updated regularly.

Conferences • Conferences will begin at the end of the first grading period.

Volunteer Opportunities All volunteers will need to fill out a criminal history check (unless you have completed one in the last 3 years). You can go to www. lisd. net. We encourage all parents to take care of this early in the school year.

Specials Science, PE 1, Music, Technology, PE 2 and Art. We are on a six day rotation. This is when the first grade teachers will have our conference period. (Students Please Make Today Paws-itively Awesome!)

Spelling Words/ Word Wall We will start our spelling words in the next few weeks. The list of words/patterns will be posted on the homework page. The students will be responsible for spelling the words on an assessment. The students will also be held accountable for the “phonics rule” or “word family” that we are concentrating on at that time. They will also be given a short dictation that contains the spelling words from the current list as well as past lists.

Grading *First Grade will now be using a Standards Based Report Card (similar to Kinder). *Your child will receive an E, M, S or N for all Standards and Future Ready Skills, and also a Reading level each grading period. E-extends and applies, M-Meets Expectations, S-Still Practicing, N-Not Demonstrating *You are able to access your child’s grades through www. lisd. net. *Look for more grading information to come!

Scholastic News *Scholastic News is a weekly/monthly newsletter that will be used to enhance our lessons. *Your child will then bring the newsletter home to share with you. *The newsletters will be your child’s to keep. The cost is $5. 50 (Matthews, Murphy, Kallail) and $9. 75 (Calta, Levano, Fackler, Hawkins – extra due to supplies) per child for Scholastic News. *Please leave your money or check made out to WES in the provided envelope that will be in your child’s room on Meet the Teacher Night.

Student of the Week Each first grade class will have a student featured every week. You will have plenty of notice when it is your child’s turn to be this special student.

Book Orders Book orders will begin to come home soon. This is a wonderful way to get books at a great price. The classrooms do receive bonus points for each dollar spent so that we can get additional classroom books. Please send in checks made out to the particular book club. No cash please. (Look for more specific information to come from your child’s teacher. )

Bins If your child forgets an assignment or backpack at home and you need to bring it up to the school, please check in at the office and place the item in the first grade bin that can be found outside the office. If you need to drop off your child’s lunch only, you may use the lunch bins outside the cafeteria. We will be checking those on our way to lunch. You will then need to email your child’s teacher to make them aware of this.

Water You may send in a water bottle with your child. Please put your child’s name on it and make sure it goes home daily. Sport tops only please.

Snacks We will be having a short snack time in the classroom. Each child may bring his or her own snack. The snack must be small and healthy. No snacks with nuts or peanuts may be brought.

Doctor/Dentist Appointments • Please make every attempt to schedule appointments after school hours. We understand that this is not always possible. • Afternoons or during lunch/recess tend to be better times of day so your child is not missing core instruction. • Thanks for your understanding!

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