Absences:

Please remember to call to notify the nurse's office of an absence. Daily homework assignments will be posted on the homework section of this website. Papers and textbooks needed to complete this work and the missed classwork will be collected during the day, and will be ready for pickup in the office by dismissal time. Please email me directly in the early morning if you wish to pick up the work at dismissal time.

If a long term absence is planned, please send a note let me know in advance. Work missed for an extended planned absence will be given to the child upon return to school.

Behavior:

Reasonable, responsible, courteous behavior is expected at all times.

Students are expected to enjoy school!

In Room 3, “We Never Settle For Less Than Our Best” DAILY!

Birthdays:

Students who wish to celebrate their birthdays may bring in healthy finger food treats for lunchtime distribution. No cupcakes, doughnuts, cookies--sugar cannot be the first ingredient. See the PTO website for ideas!

If a student has a summer birthday and wishes to celebrate a "very merry half-birthday" or an "unbirthday," this is fine! A birthday treat of a No Homework pass is far more valuable during the year, than at the end of the year--so I encourage the early summer birthday celebrations!

Books:

Students will regularly bring home books to complete homework assignments.  These books must come back to class the next day.  Students will also be using school and classroom books for reading assignments.  These, too, will need to be brought to school every day for classroom reading use.  The student is responsible for all books borrowed, and will have to pay for them if lost.

Book Reports:

My classroom pattern in Reading for each month will be that we will read a novel “in common” for the first part of each month.  I will do the pacing and assign the amount to be read in class and for each night’s life habits.  After we finish this book, the students will select a book from my carefully chosen classroom supply for the “Open Choice Reading” part of the month.  Here, your child will do the pacing--reading at his or her individual pace at a rate of approximately 20 minutes of classroom reading time each day (with comment), and 30 minutes of life habits reading time (with comment) at home.  Each individual’s pace should grow over the course of the year, and children will finish books at different times.  New books will be signed out as books are finished.  Each child will at least read one book on his or her own each month, but it is not unusual for the children to read 2 books or more each month! 

Book Reviews will be due the first school day of each new month.  They are to be written on the child’s choice of one individually read book that month. Your child will have a Book Review Guide  in the Ingredients folder of the Cookbook.   This details what is expected in the summary portion of the report and should be used each month as the form is filled out.   My monthly Book Review forms themselves will vary, and will be available by mid month for the upcoming Book Review Date.  I will be teaching students not to leave working on the Book Review to the last minute!!!!!  Book Reviews can be handed in early!!!  Late Book Reviews incur detention.

Cookbook

We will be using our Cookbooks (binders) to keep ourselves organized and on track this year.  Your child will be given clear plastic insert folders for the binder which will be labeled in school—Reading, Writing, To Do, Cooked (Finished Work), and Ingredients.  These folders along with the year’s assignment pad, should always be in the Cookbook and should be used solely for their intended purpose.  The Reading folder will contain the comment sheet of the day and may contain the actual book to be read if the size of the book allows.  The Writing folder will contain the Writer’s Notebook which is used daily in class as well as at home.  To Do will contain any worksheets to be completed for homework as well as any daily notices for parents.  This folder is also where the completed homework sheets should be re-placed after completion, for your child to “mail” to me in the morning.  Cooked or finished work should be emptied at home daily.   Please look for the contents of this folder on a daily basis!  There will be occasional evenings when my personal life precludes my marking papers, but in general, I do mark and return yesterday’s work to the children the next morning.  This keeps all of us on top of what is happening.  Please remove these papers each night so that your child does not drag around the extra weight, and so that you will be in touch with progress daily.   All of these sheets have been checked and are there for your review.  None of these need to come back to school, nor should your child tote around a collection of these checked papers.  The more “clogged up” the cookbook becomes with old papers, the less able your child will be to keep him or herself organized!

Ingredients will house paperwork that is needed for many days or even for the year.  Items in this folder need to be re-placed in the Ingredients folder each evening that they are used.  Items here are often used both in class and at home, so they need to be in the folder daily.

Detention:

Students will stay until 3pm on Thursday if warranted by late homework or behavioral situations.  Notice of impending detention will be given to parents.  No student will be held for same day detention unless parent has been reached and agrees to the later pickup time.

Elephants:

Every month your child will be given an “elephant chef” for that month.  This is a coupon that gives a night’s grace to ONE forgotten or overdue assignment.  The elephant must be surrendered to me in place of the assignment-- which then becomes due the next morning.  The only penalty incurred when an elephant is used is that your child will no longer have an elephant by month’s end to trade with me for a NO HOMEWORK PASS (that will be good for one night during the following month).  If more than one assignment per month is late, your child will need to complete the work during lunch recess detention.  If a pattern develops in this area, we will have to talk!  All students who complete all assignments for the month on time will be rewarded with one night off from homework in the following month.  This “night off” will never include Life Habits which are NOT homework!

Fries:

In Room 3 we are “Frying Our Best.”  Each individual student has a “fry” in the box.  Fries are only removed from the box after repeated misbehavior despite warnings.  For every week that no fry comes out of the box, the class earns $.99 for the tip jar.  Any fry that reaches the “boiling zone” (which means continued misbehavior beyond removal of the fry), warrants detention for that individual student.

Homework:

Homework is to be done daily as assigned.  It should take approximately an hour and a half to complete.  Occasionally, it may take longer as the volume of work increases, but it should never exceed two hours!  Late or missing homework will be recorded, and students will stay for Thursday detention, if warranted.  Any overdue homework accrues toward detention if not submitted by the next morning.  Three incidences of late homework also will incur a detention day.

There is homework every night (Monday through Thursday), and I do not allow my students to begin homework or complete homework in class!  The only exceptions to this policy will be on your child’s birthday, when he or she will have a “No Homework” coupon to spend on a night of their choice, and when the class earns enough money to purchase “No Homework” from the tip jar.  This “No Homework” purchase will be occasional.  Both of these exemptions will never eliminate our life habits- there will always be Reading and Writing to do--including Weekends!  I do require one 30 minute reading time over the weekend with accompanying comment sheet entry, and one Writer’s Notebook weekend entry.

Unfinished Classwork Becomes Homework at 2:00:

At 2:00, when we copy homework, all unfinished classwork becomes homework for students.  Students are expected to record these personal items in their assignment books, and to complete them by the next morning.

All homework must be copied into assignment books on a daily basis!

Life Habits:

In class 4-Maher we make a decided distinction between “life habits” and homework.  Our “At Home” Menu does list both--but separately!  Every night of fourth grade, (and hopefully for the rest of our lives!), we are devoting time to our life habits of reading for 30 minutes and then commenting about what something that we have just read meant to us, and writing in our Writer’s Notebooks for a minimum of 15 minutes.

Monday Folder:

We will have red Monday Folders that will come home weekly with recently completed assessments for review and signature as well as notices, book order offerings, permission slips, math parent letters, and other important messages for you.  Please sign and return tests. 

If you choose to participate in the monthly offerings from Scholastic Arrow books, please note the deadline date and send back order form with checks made out to Scholastic.

Please check the cookbook daily for time-sensitive notices that could not be held until Monday’s Folder.

Seats:

Student seats will be changed monthly.  We will all learn to get along with each other, and will experience varied classroom “vistas” this way.

Snack Packs:

Various activities and centers are available in the classroom for students who have finished their assigned tasks and are looking for a challenge.  These activities are not graded and earn rewards for taking the challenge in our classroom tip jar.

Spelling:

Spelling homework will be assigned form the Spelling homework Menu which should at all times be able to be located in your child’s “Ingredients “folder in the Cookbook.  It is to be completed on looseleaf paper in careful handwriting!

Spelling tests will be given on Fridays.  The test will come home in the Monday Folder for your review and signature.

Tardiness:

Students should be in the hall and ready to enter the classsroom at 7:55 a.m. Students will be marked tardy if not in the classroom at 8:05 a.m.

Tea Time:

Occasional invitations to “tea” will be given during the year if a group of students need some extra attention in a subject area.  Tea Time is not punitive, and will generally last until 3pm.  A few cookies and a cup of iced tea are included with the extra help!  You will be notified in advance of an invitation to tea!

Tests:

Tests in all areas except Math will be announced, and study guides will be given to the students.  We are learning how to study this year, and much focus will be on process.  We will prepare in class for tests, and students will be expected to prepare nightly for an upcoming test, once it has been announced. Tests will come home for parent review and signature in The Monday Folder.  Signed tests are to be returned the next day.

Tip Jar:

Our classroom is very community minded.  As a unit, we earn rewards in the form of “tips” which can accumulate towards “spending” on a number of student-generated reward activities.  Money earned is pooled, and the students vote on spending patterns when they have earned enough for a reward.

Unfinished Classwork:

At the end of the day, all unfinished classwork becomes homework for students.  Students are expected to record these personal items, as well as the Life Habits and the homework that I write on the board, in their assignment books, and to complete them by the next morning.

All homework must be copied into assignment books on a daily basis!

Vitamins:

Keep giving your child the edible kind, if you choose!  I will be giving an inedible version daily--four self-checked, varied problems a morning that will reinforce skills.  If you hear a rumor that your child can stop eating the other vitamins because they are taking them in school, don’t believe it!

 Water Bottles:

Students may have water bottles only at their desks during the day. Other beverages must be consumed at lunch.

Email Mrs. Maher