Scott Foresman Homework Unit 1 Week 2

This is the I used homwork for Scott Foresman Unit 1 Week 2. I am trying to work out a better way to post, because the handwriting lines don't seem to come through Scribd neatly. Any suggestions?

Homework. 1.2

Scott Foresman Homework Unit 1 Week 1

This is the homework I send home with my students each week. The language arts homework goes along with the skills that we are working on in our Scott Foresman unit. The homework below goes along with Unit 1 Week 1 (we will be on Unit 1 Week 3 this week, so I'll be posting more soon). The last page is math and goes along with the skills we are working on in class.
Homework 1.1

Note: Some of the dotted lines don't come out right when I upload my documents to Scribd. If anyone knows how to fix this please let me know. Thanks :).

Class Handbook for Parents

After my first year teaching I went to a conference where Harry Wong was speaking. During his presentation he stressed  having clear policies and procedures in place for both students and parents. He also discussed the importance of documentation. After the presentation I decided I wanted to have a class handbook for parents.

I already had an introductory letter that I had adapted from a co-worker the year before. I used this letter as the basis for my handbook, and added more detailed explanations of my class policies and procedures.  I edit the handbook before the start of each school year.
Policies and Procedures for Parents

I include an acknowledgement sheet for parents to sign.
Handbook Sign Sheet

I put my handbook into a 3 pronged pocket folder. This allows me to put a copy of my class welcome letter and a student information card in the front and the acknowledgement form in the back. I put the handbook pages into page protectors. I think this looks nice and keeps them from tearing up. I also include a list of snacks and recipes that was provided to us by our school district.

I put a label on the front of the folder.

I send the handbooks home on the first day of school,  and ask that parents return the acknowledgment sheet and student information card by the end of the week.  I always make extra handbooks to have for new students who come in later in the year. It is nice to be able to provide them information about our class immediately, and I think it helps to make them feel more comfortable.

Welcome Letter

This is the letter that I give to incoming parents at our start of the school year social, which takes place the week before school begins. It provides general information about our class, and  gives parents an idea of what to expect on the first day of school.

Welcome Letter

On the first day of school I send home a class handbook with details about class policies and  procedures (I'll post a copy of that soon). I  also include a copy of this welcome letter with the handbook to ensure that parents who missed the social receive a copy. I think this letter helps set a nice tone for the school year.

I Love Target's Dollar Spot!

For the past few weeks I've been seeing many teaching blog posts about great finds at Target's Dollar Spot. I've been stalking the Dollar Spot trying to find the stand up pocket charts I've seen on several blogs. I thought I was never going to find them. You can imagine my excitement when I found a bin full of them today!  I was so excited I just had to blog about it.

I plan on using them in my literacy and math centers. They will be super for my rhyming cards (click to see that post) matching activity. Did I say I was excited?  

Money Collection Labels

In the B.E.E. Binders I send home each day with my students there is a pouch for money. The label on the pouch reminds parents that all  money  that is not going to be placed in their child's lunch account should be placed in an envelope labeled with what the money is for. I used to send home pre-printed money collection envelopes that I purchased at a conference, but I ran out of them a few years ago.

To make collecting money a little easier I created these money collection labels (my printer likes to eat envelopes, so printing on labels works better for me). I will place the labels onto envelopes and attach them to permission slips, book club orders, etc... I have put spaces on the labels for information I find helpful. I also put a place on the labels for my name. Hopefully this will help an envelope find it's way to my room if a student decides to take out the envelope on the bus (in the car line, at breakfast, etc...) to look at it, and accidentally leaves it behind J.

Money Collection Label
These are general labels that can be used for any money collections throughout the year.

Fieldtrip Money Collection Label
I will use these for fieldtrips. The envelopes are big enough for both the money and permission slips. Asking for both of these in the same envelope helps me stay organized, and reminds parents to send in both items together.

T-Shirt Money Collection Label
Every year each class on our team orders a different color T-shirt with the students' signatures on the back. The students wear these for fieldtrips and other special events. I included size on these labels because sometimes parents forget to write the size on the order form, and this will help ensure I know what size to order for each child.

Scholastic Orders Collection Labels
These labels will be used for Scholastic book orders.

Book Fair Money Labels
These labels will be used for school book fairs.



Note: These labels are formatted for Avery Standard, 5163 shipping labels.  .

Letter Matching Activity



This is an activity that I adapted from the Rock Phonics activity that was created by Mr. Smith at TeacherTipster.com. If you have not seen his videos you need to check them out. He has a ton of really great songs and ideas. Plus, he is absolutely hilarious.

In his activity Mr. Smith wrote letters and word chunks on accent gems (the kind you use in flower arrangements) to use as word making manipulatives. I love this idea for a word making activity, and plan on doing that a little later in the year.

I adapted this activity so that I could also use it at the start of  kindergarten, when we are working on letter identification. I was in the Dollar Tree and found  bags of large and small gems. I thought that they would be perfect for an activity to match capital and small letters, because I could use the big gems for the capital letters and the small gems for the small letters.

I typed up a sheet of capital letters and a sheet of small letters. Mr. Smith wrote his letters on the back with a Sharpie. This works well with an overhead. I'm not going to be using these on an overhead, so I just typed the letters. If you write them with a Sharpie remember to write them backwards, so they show up correctly when you flip them over.

Letters for Gem Activity
(Note: There are some formatting errors that occured when I uploaded this document to Scribd, but it will still work)
After printing the sheets I cut out each row. I used a regular Elmer's glue stick on the back of the gems.  This seems to have worked well, but I had to make sure I rubbed the glue with a paper towel until it turned clear. I placed the gems over the letters and cut around the outside. Before I use them I will use Modge Podge to seal the papers onto the gems.

I'm going to place these in a literacy center. I plan on using these as a letter matching activity, and am also thinking about using them in a letter ordering activity. I think that my students will be really excited about using the gems. Thanks for the inspiration Mr. Smith!



Note: The camera and lighting caused a glare in some of the photoa, but they are easy to read in person.