"Sports Day"

Please remember to send you child to school dressed in either a sports jersey, shirt, and/or hat tomorrow. We have all kinds of fun activities planned. Every year, funding for schools is based on the number of students in attendance on October 1. To celebrate our students' attendance tomorrow, we have lots of fun things planned.

Thanks,
Mrs. Freeman

Initial Sign-in on the PTO Manager

MANY OF YOU HAVE MENTIONED THAT YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE SETTING UP YOUR ACCOUNT. THIS IS STEP BY STEP INFORMATION FOR YOU TO LOG VOLUNTEER HOURS.

Usual sign-in on the BECS homepage will work, after you initially make your account.

Make your account:

Go to www.becspto.ptomanager.com

Click on the "click here" button on the far right-side sign in the bottom box.

Type in your email and password. This will then take you to your information page.

Fill out your information in all three sections. Can click the login buttion to now see your account.

After your account has been approved, registration can take a couple of hours, you will be able to log in all volunteering time you have done.

To log volunteer time:

Go to colunteering link on BECS homepage.

Type in your email and password.

You can change your information on the first tab.

Second tab is the Events, click on it. These events are saved by date assigned.
To see events alphabetically, click on the blue "Events" button, once for z-a, again for a-z.

Read through all events to find the one you wnat to put time down for, this could be past events or future events. Go to far right, under actions column, click to volunteer.

Type what you did (i.e., copying, meeting, decodables, field trip, meals, etc. ) under the task tab.

Type in the date

Either type in the "time" (both the in and out) you volunteered or the hours.

Hit save.

You can type in many different dates and times under one event.

Reminders for Spetember 27, 2010

Here are a few helpful reminders of things going on this week at school:

• Book orders are due tomorrow.
• It is important for all students to attend school this Friday, October 1. Every year, funding for schools is based on the number of students in attendance on October 1. To celebrate our students' attendance on Friday, we will have "sports day" where all students can wear their favorite sport's team jerseys, shirts, and/or hats. The First grade team will also be planning some fun games and activities during the day. Our goal is 100% attendance.
• When you send in snacks or treats for your child's birthday please be mindful that we have some allergies to Soy, Peanuts, and Pine nuts. Thank you in advance for rememebering to include everyone.
• New School Policy-If you must pick up your child early from school beginning Monday September 13, 2010, you will beed to check them out by 3:00pm. We are having an excessive amount of early dismissals at teh end of the day, which is causing too much disruption to the instruction taking place in the classroom.

Progress Reports

We will be sending out progress reports this Friday, Oct 1st. They will come home in the Friday Folders. Remember you also have access to your child's grades online by checking infinite campus.

Thanks,
Mrs. Freeman

Picture Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow is Picture day which also means it is a free dress day. We do have P.E. for specials so please make sure to send along a pair of tennis shoes with your child.

Thanks,
Mrs. Freeman

FREE DRESS DAY

Tomorrow is a Free Dress Day. Everyone in our room has earned this privilege for the month of September. We are also having an assembly in the morning from 8:45-9:30am We would love for you to join us if you are available. I will see you tomorrow!

NO SCHOOL ON FRIDAY.

Thanks,
Mrs. Freeman

Reminders

There are lots of things going on in the next week so hopefully these reminders will help:

• Wednesday, September 22, 2010 Fundraiser money is due!
  
• $5.00 and the permission slip for the Wildlife Experience presentation is DUE 9/23/1
  
• Paperless is Here! We will now post all flyers, announcements, newsletters, etc. on our website. If you prefer to receive a paper copy of materials, you will need to request this option by signing a form available in the front office. Please take time to complete this form, and we will put copies of Friday Folder items in your youngest child's Friday Folder beginning on Friday, Oct 1.
  
• This Thursday is a FREE DRESS DAY. This is available for anyone that has not received 3 or more tardies or a behavior slip in the month of September. Everyone in our class has earned this privilege. ; )
  
• ALSO, Thursday we are having an assembly featuring NED. We would love for you to join us from 8:45-9:30am. It is sure to be a great time.
  
• NO SCHOOL Friday, September 24th, 2010.

Thank you.
Mrs. Freeman

New Dismissal Procedure

Today was the first day of our new dismissal procedure. The specials teachers will now be bringing the students outside at the end of the day. This new routine will hopefully make pickup time more timely and less conjested.

Thanks,
Mrs. Freeman

Behavior Chart

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Many of you know about the stoplight discipline policy in my room as we went over it during "Back to School" night. Those of you who do not, it is a system that goes from green to red depending on the students ability to follow the rules at school. I have decided to implement a behavior chart that is going to go home in the homework folders everyday. This way you are able to keep track of how your child is doing. I prefer to use lots of positive reinforcement and I feel the best way to do this is to reward students for good behavior. Once students accumulate ten green days they will earn a privilege such as: coupons for lunch with the teacher, 15 minutes of computer time, first in line for the day, trip to the prize bucket or various other things. The hope in doing this is that it will increase the communication pertaining to your child's day and also that the children will understand the importance of good behavior and a positive learning environment.

Thanks for sharing your children with me and allowing me the opportunity to teach them.

Mrs. Freeman

This Week in First Grade August 30th

We had a great week. We completed the first units in reading and math. In reading we have been working on sounds of h, m, s, t, and short a. You should have received a bag of decodable books and a reading log. Please be sure to have your child read to you and be tracking it on the new reading log. Some parents have mentioned that these books are very easy for there child to read. Please keep reading them it helps build their reading fluency. You may also ask them questions about the story this is great for working on comprehension. The books should be easy for your child to read this means that they are at grade level. The books will become more challenging as we move forward in our reading curriculum. The students took their first math test today. We have been counting by 1's, 2's, and 5's as well as comparing numbers and learning how to use a number line.

In Social Studies Mrs. McCleskey has been working on maps and continents. Mrs. Rutter has been focusing on how to write telling sentences. You should have them write a sentence for you with a capital letter at the beginning and a period at the end.

Science has been very exciting! We have continued our unit on habitats. This week we have been learning about the four layers of the rain forest and which animals live there and why. The children seem very excited about it. You should ask them to name a layer of the rain forest for you and a few animals that might live there.

LABOR DAY IS MONDAY SEPTEMBER 6th, NO SCHOOL!!

Have a great weekend,
Mrs. Freeman