Mrs. Keebler's Blog

Mrs. Keebler’s Class Policies and Procedures

I look forward to working together with you as a team to educate your child and help in preparing your children to grow to their full potential.  Here is some important information for the school year:

Attendance:

• Your student should be in their seat, ready to work at 8:55 am.  Attendance is taken at 8:55 and they will be marked tardy if they arrive after 9:00.  Students will be allowed to come to the classroom at 8:55 and no sooner.  Tardiness is embarrassing to your student and disruptive to the class, classroom instruction must stop so that I can change the absence to a tardy in the computer.
• If your student does come in late for some reason, please walk them to the office to sign them in and to order their lunch if they are buying hot lunch.  Our lunch count is taken at 9:00 with attendance and sent to the office.
• Please remember there will be some late starts on Wednesdays.  These days are posted on the calendar page of this blog.   Student will arrive at 9:55 on those days.

Dismissal – Our school day ends at 3:55 and 12:05 on 1/2 days.  Please arrive at 3:55 pm to pick up your children.  We will bring your children out to the back door.  When your child sees you he/she must fist bump my hand and tell me who is here to pick them up.  This allows me to know exactly when a student is leaving and with whom.  Please be sure that whoever is picking up your child has their name on the Emergency Card in the office.  I will not release your child without this information.

Early dismissal – If your child will need to be picked up early for some reason.  Please call the office and let them know what time you will arrive.  They will call me and I will get your child ready.  When you arrive, they will call me and I will send them to the office.  Please try to provide me time to prepare their notes and homework before they leave.

Spelling –  All spelling activities and lists can be found on Schoology.   Please practice these words with your child and make sure they are completing the activities online which is due by Friday.  Students will be responsible for spelling then correctly on tests and in everyday work.  Test will usually be on Friday it will switch to Thursday, if there is no school on Friday.

Social Studies – The Social Studies student e-books can be found on Schoology.   Students will have assignments on the in their journal and on the computer.

Math – This year we will using the Eureka Math program.  The is a tab on the blog with links to students workbooks, homework and study guides for tests.   We will be supplementing with Montessori math materials and computer math programs to individualize instruction.  Students are expected to memorize all their addition and subtraction facts from 0-20 and their multiplication and division facts 0-10 as homework.  This should be done by the end of the year.

Completed papers – How do you know when a paper is completed and can be recycled? I suggest having a place at home to keep finished paper until the marking period ends. Once the marking period is over, those papers can be recycled. If you keep the papers and then one is missing in the grade book, all you need to do is turn it in again. Otherwise, your student will need to do the assignments again.

Understanding the teacher notes on a paper – When there is a has a check in the upper right hand corner then this paper has been recorded in the grade book as a report card grade. If your student gets a score less than 80% then I will usually ask them to redo it, to try to raise their grade. Most assignments can be redone with permission.  If there is a check in the left corner then I have looked at the paper, but it is one that doesn’t count toward the report card.

A number 1-4 in a circle is the grade:

100%-95% is a 1

94%-80% is a 2

79%-70% is a 3

69%-0% is a 4

Book Bag Assignments – Book bags will be sent home at the beginning of the year. The student is to read the book and complete the response to reading assignments.   Students should bring back the bag when they are done with the book and switch it themselves with a new one from the shelf.

Reading Logs – Children need to read 20 minutes per day in order to increase their vocabulary. Each child must complete a reading log each month including the minutes they read on the front and the strategies they used on the back. They will receive a free Pizza Hut pizza each month they complete their reading goals.

Homework

• Certain assignments will be taken home as homework if not finished in class.
• Most of the assignments can be found attached to my lesson plans on my blog.  Here is the link: https://planbook.com/student?t=1021332&
• All students will be expected to memorize their math facts.  They will be tested on them each day.  Please practice these with your child at home.  Memorization is crucial to further success in math.  They will earn an ice cream scoop for each of the tests they pass.  We will have an ice cream party for the class when the whole class complete all their addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts.  There will be 4 ice cream parties if we everyone can memorize all their facts.
• Throughout the year, I will be assigning all students book reports and research papers.  I will be requesting parent assistance when those projects come home.
• Homework should take between 30-60 minutes each night.  If it is taking longer than 60 minutes please talk to me about ways that we can reduce the homework for your child.
• If you occasionally have a family situation that prevents your child from completing their homework please write me a note so that I can excuse them from their homework.   This should not be a regular occurrence.

Communication/Homework Folders – Students will receive a red Communication/Homework folder that must be kept in his/her backpack.  Any homework or notes going home or coming back to school should be placed in this folder.  Each morning your students must take their folders out of the backpacks, put homework in the box and put the folder on their desk.  Please help your student be responsible with returning the folder each day.

Star of the Week – Each week we will have a Star of the Week.  The students will bring in a poster of pictures of themselves, sharing, and other things.  There is a blog page explaining everything.  Every child will have a turn to be the Star.  We will be going in alphabetical order, unless I need to make a change.  This is a special time for your child, please help them remember to bring everything to help us see how special your child is.  One of the things that I asked each parent to do is to write a letter to their child sharing with us what make your child special.  I will read this to the class, then give it to your child to save.  This is my favorite part of the week, PLEASE write this letter for your child!!

Volunteers – We are in need of many parent volunteers to assist throughout the school year.  I will send home a volunteer form to parents to sign up.  In order to volunteer in the school you must have the proper paperwork turn in at the office.  Please check with the office to get the papers needed to volunteer.

Communication –

• I would like to make myself available to talk with parents as much as possible.  Please feel free to make an appointment to talk about your students progress or any concerns.   Please give your child a note in the morning and I will read it as soon as possible.  If you would like to talk, the best way to reach me is by email.  These come to my cell phone so I will sometimes see these during the day.  You can also call the office, leave a note in my box or send it with your child.  My email is keeblek@dearbornschools.org.  I will try to reply to all messages within 24 hours.
• Problems – Please bring all problems directly to me rather than discussing them with your friends or going directly to the principal.  I can only solve problems if you let me know about them.  Please do not assume that your child will tell me about it, quite often students will let you think they have told me and they have not.  If another student is making your child feel bad or hurting them in anyway please email me right away so that I can take care of it.  We will all have a wonderful year if we openly discuss everything.  Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
• My Blog – https://iblog.dearbornschools.org/keebler/   My blog, Schoology and Class Dojo are the main forms of communication as we have had large budget cuts and we are restricted on paper usage.  Please subscribe to my blog for important updates of tests, study guides, permission slips, etc.  Please make sure that you keep me current on your email address.  If you do not have access to a computer, please let me know so I can print your information, but you should also have a friend in class who can call you if there is a last minute change.

Birthdays are celebrated at the end of the day.  Children may bring in a small treat for the students to eat.  Examples include cupcakes, brownies or cookies. These snack should be individually wrapped and store bought. Pizza parties will not be allowed.  Summer birthdays are celebrated at the end of the school year.  This is a NUT FREE classroom.  Do not send anything with nuts!

Birthday invitations – If you are giving your child a birthday party and want to invite certain children from the class, please pass out those invitations outside of school.  You may pass out invitations only if you are inviting the entire class.  Students get very sad if they find out there is a party and they are not invited.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

Behavior – I use the Class Dojo app for behavior.  Student get positive and negative points each day for behavior.  You are able to see at any moment how your child’s behavior is and what they are earning or losing point for.  We encourage positive behavior.    Please help reinforce at home if you see poor behavior in school on the Class Dojo app.  Parent involvement is a very important indicator of student behavior and cooperation.  Thanks in advance for all your support.

Lunch – see schedule for time.

Snack –

• This is a NUT FREE classroom.  Do not send anything with nuts!
• Students will only be allowed to eat a healthy snack.
• Healthy snacks include: fruit, vegetables, crackers, cheese, yogurt, healthy dry low sugar cereals, granola and cereal bars, 100% fruit juice, etc.
• We have a Fruit and Vegetable Chart that we use in the classroom to keep track of everyone’s healthy eating.  If we reach the goal by the end of the month, the class will be rewarded with extra recess.
• Chips, cookies, candy, fruit chews, pop or sugary fruit drinks, etc. will not be eaten at snack.  These are also discouraged at lunch time; please send healthy lunches with protein that will sustain them for the rest of the day.
• Please make me aware if your child has any food allergies or restrictions.

Field Trips – We will be having several trips during the school year.  Chaperones are needed to help keep track of all the students.  If you would like to chaperone for a field trip, please make sure that you have all the paperwork signed in the office.  When you chaperone you will be assigned a small group of students to keep track of during the trip.  Siblings are not allowed on field trips.

 

Parents are the student’s primary teacher.  I am looking forward to working with you as a team to educate your child.  We are going to have  a wonderful year!

Mrs. Keebler